Yahweh said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for by a strong hand he shall let them go, and by a strong hand he shall drive them out of his land.”
God spoke to Moses, and said to him, “I am Yahweh. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty; but by my name Yahweh I was not known to them. I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their travels, in which they lived as aliens. Moreover I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant. Therefore tell the children of Israel, ‘I am Yahweh, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments. I will take you to myself for a people. I will be your God; and you shall know that I am Yahweh your God, who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for a heritage: I am Yahweh.’ ”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 6, 7, 8 Hebrew, in a strong hand.
Hebrew, in a strong hand.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–8 Exo 6:1 Then the LORD said unto Moses, Now…
Exo 6:1 Then the LORD said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.
Ver. 1. Then the Lord said unto Moses.] Pardoning the faults of his prayer, God grants him a gracious answer. So he dealt with David, "For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heartiest the voice of nay supplication when I cried unto thee." {Psa 31:22}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 6, 7, 8 With a strong hand; being compelled to do so…
With a strong hand; being compelled to do so by my powerful and terrible works.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 Here, I. God silences Moses's complaints with the assurance…
Here, I. God silences Moses's complaints with the assurance of success in this negotiation, repeating the promise made him in Exo 3:20, After that, he will let you go. When Moses was at his wit's end, wishing he had staid in Midian, rather than have come to Egypt to make bad worse - when he was quite at a loss what to do - Then the Lord said unto Moses, for the quieting of his mind, "Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh (Exo 6:1); now that the affair has come to a crisis, things are as bad as they can be, Pharaoh is in the height of pride and Israel in the depth of misery, now is my time to appear." See Psa 12:5, Now will I arise. Note, Man's extremity is God's opportunity of helping and saving. Moses had been expecting what God would do; but now he shall see what he will do, shall see his day at length, Job 24:1. Moses had been trying what he could do, and could effect nothing. "Well," says God, "now thou shalt see what I will do; let me alone to deal with this proud man," Job 40:12, Job 40:13. Note, Then the deliverance of God's church will be accomplished, when God takes the work into his own hands. With a strong hand, that is, being forced to it by a strong hand, he shall let them go. Note, As some are brought to their duty by the strong hand of God's grace, who are made willing in the day of his power, so others by the strong hand of his justice, breaking those that would not bend.
II. He gives him further instructions, that both he and the people of Israel might be encouraged to hope for a glorious issue of this affair. Take comfort,
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1. From God's name, Jehovah, Exo 6:2, Exo 6:3. He begins with this, I am Jehovah, the same with, I am that I am, the fountain of being, and blessedness, and infinite perfection. The patriarchs knew this name, but they did not know him in this matter by that which this name signifies. God would now be known by his name Jehovah, that is, (1.) A God performing what he had promised, and so inspiring confidence in his promises. (2.) A God perfecting what he had begun, and finishing his own work. In the history of the creation, God is never called Jehovah till the heavens and the earth were finished, Gen 2:4. When the salvation of the saints is completed in eternal life, then he will be known by his name Jehovah (Rev 22:13); in the mean time they shall find him, for their strength and support, El-shaddai, a God all-sufficient, a God that is enough and will be so, Mic 7:20.
2. From his covenant: I have established my covenant, Exo 6:4. Note, The covenants God makes he establishes; they are made as firm as the power and truth of God can make them. We may venture our all upon this bottom.
3. From his compassions (Exo 6:5): I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel; he means their groaning on occasion of the late hardships put upon them. Note, God take notice of the increase of his people's calamities, and observes how their enemies grow upon them.
4. From his present resolutions, Exo 6:6-8. Here is line upon line, to assure them that they should be brought triumphantly out of Egypt (Exo 6:6), and should be put in possession of the land of Canaan (Exo 6:8): I will bring you out. I will rid you. I will redeem you. I will bring you into the land of Canaan, and I will give it to you. Let man take the shame of his unbelief, which needs such repetitions; and let God have the glory of his condescending grace, which gives us such repeated assurances for our satisfaction.
5. From his gracious intentions in all these, which were great, and worthy of him, Exo 6:7. (1.) He intended their happiness: I will take you to me for a people, a peculiar people, and I will be to you a God; more than this we need not ask, we cannot have, to make us happy. (2.) He intended his own glory: You shall know that I am the Lord. God will attain his own ends, nor shall we come short of them if we make them our chief end too. Now, one would think, these good words, and comfortable words, should have revived the drooping Israelites, and cause them to forget their misery; but, on the contrary, their miseries made them regardless of God's promises (Exo 6:9): They harkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit. That is, [1.] They were so taken up with their troubles that they did not heed him. [2.] They were so cast down with their late disappointment that they did not believe him. [3.] They had such a dread of Pharaoh's power and wrath that they durst not themselves move in the least towards their deliverance. Note, First, Disconsolate spirits often put from them the comforts they are entitled to, and stand in their own light. See Isa 28:12. Secondly, Strong passions oppose strong consolations. By indulging ourselves in discontent and fretfulness, we deprive ourselves of the comfort we might have both from God's word and from his providence, and must thank ourselves if we go comfortless.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–8 Then the Lord said unto Moses,.... In answer to…
Then the Lord said unto Moses,.... In answer to the questions put to him, and the expostulations made with him:
now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: in inflicting punishments on him: for with a strong hand shall he let them go; being forced to it by the mighty hand of God upon him; and it is by some rendered, "because of a strong hand" (s); so Jarchi; for this is not to be understood of the hand of Pharaoh, but of the hand of God:
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and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land: not only be willing that they should go, but be urgent upon them to be gone, Exo 12:33.
(s) "propter manum validam"; so some in Drusius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 In this chapter,
In this chapter,
I. God satisfies Moses as to his complaints, ver. 1.
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II. He gives him fuller instructions what to say to the children of Israel, ver. 2-8. but to little purpose, ver. 9.
III. He sends him again to Pharaoh, ver. 10, 11. But Moses objects against that, ver. 12. upon which a strict charge is given to him and his brother, to execute their commission with vigour, ver. 13.
IV. An abstract of the genealogy of the tribes of Reuben and Simeon, to introduce that of Levi, that the pedigree of Moses and Aaron might be cleared, ver. 14-27
V. A repetition of the preceding story, ver. 28-30.
With a strong hand - That is, being forced to it by a strong hand, he shall let them go.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 God encourages Moses, and promises to show wonders upon…
CHAPTER VI
God encourages Moses, and promises to show wonders upon Pharaoh,
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and to bring out his people with a strong hand, 1.
He confirms this promise by his essential name JEHOVAH, 2, 3;
by the covenant he had made with their fathers, 4, 5.
Sends Moses with a fresh message to the Hebrews, full of the most
gracious promises, and confirms the whole by appealing to the name
in which his unchangeable existence is implied, 6-8.
Moses delivers the message to the Israelites, but through anguish
of spirit they do not believe, 9.
He receives a new commission to go to Pharaoh, 10, 11.
He excuses himself on account of his unreadiness of speech, 12.
The Lord gives him and Aaron a charge both to Pharaoh and to the
children of Israel, 13.
The genealogy of Reuben, 14;
of Simeon, 15;
of Levi, from whom descended Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, 16.
The sons of Gershon, 17;
of Kohath, 15;
of Merari, 19.
The marriage of Amram and Jochebed, 20.
The sons of Izhar and Uzziel, the brothers of Amram, 21, 22.
Marriage of Aaron and Elisheba, and the birth of their sons,
Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, 23.
The sons of Korah, the nephew of Aaron, 24.
The marriage of Eleazar to one of the daughters of Putiel, and
the birth of Phinehas, 25.
These genealogical accounts introduced for the sake of showing the
line of descent of Moses and Aaron, 26, 27.
A recapitulation of the commission delivered to Moses and Aaron, 29,
and a repetition of the excuse formerly made by Moses, 30.
NOTES ON CHAP. VI
Verse 1. With a strong hand] יד חזקה yad chazakah, the same verb which we translate to harden; See Clarke on Ex 4:21. The strong hand here means sovereign power, suddenly and forcibly applied. God purposed to manifest his sovereign power in the sight of Pharaoh and the Egyptians; in consequence of which Pharaoh would manifest his power and authority as sovereign of Egypt, in dismissing and thrusting out the people. See Ex 12:31-33.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 7 Exo 6:1. Now shalt thou see what I will…
Exo 6:1. Now shalt thou see what I will do — Here we have a striking proof of God’s long-suffering. Instead of severely reproving Moses for his impatience, as manifested at the close of the preceding chapter, and his injurious complaints, he condescends to give him fresh assurances of his power and his determination to deliver the Israelites. With a strong hand — That is, being forced to it with a strong hand, or by those terrible judgments which I shall inflict upon him by my power, he shall let them go.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2, 6 There appears to have been an interval of some…
There appears to have been an interval of some months between the preceding events and this renewal of the promise to Moses. The oppression in the meantime was not merely driving the people to desperation, but preparing them by severe labor, varied by hasty wanderings in search of stubble, for the exertions and privations of the wilderness. Hence, the formal and solemn character of the announcements in the whole chapter.
Exo 6:2
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I am the Lord ... - The meaning seems to be this: “I am Jehovah (Yahweh), and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but as to my name Jehovah, I was not made known to them.” In other words, the full import of that name was not disclosed to them. See Exo 3:14.
Exo 6:3
God Almighty - Rather, “El Shaddai,” (שׁדי אל 'êl shadday), it is better to keep this as a proper name.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 7, 8 Said, in answer to his prayer. --- Cast out,…
Said, in answer to his prayer. --- Cast out, so eager he will be to have you dismissed, after he has repeatedly felt my hand, chap. iii. 19. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–3 And God spake unto Moses--For his further encouragement, there…
And God spake unto Moses--For his further encouragement, there was made to him an emphatic repetition of the promise (Exo 3:20).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–2 THE TEN JUDGMENT STROKES, Exo_6:1 to Exo_12:30.
THE TEN JUDGMENT STROKES, Exo_6:1 to Exo_12:30.
1. Now — In this crisis of Israel’s fortunes, when all peaceful means have failed; a word of emphasis and transition. Of course, these interviews are only sketched; all that was said to Pharaoh is not detailed. These negotiations may have been some time in progress.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Exo_6:1. Jehovah’s reply. He calms Moses with the assurance…
Exo_6:1. Jehovah’s reply. He calms Moses with the assurance that he will now shortly see what will happen to the Pharaoh: he will soon not merely be willing to let the Israelites go, but will be eager to drive or thrust them (Exo_11:1, Exo_12:39) from his land.
by a strong hand] compelled by the strong hand of Jehovah; cf. Exo_3:19.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 (1) Now shalt thou see.—Moses’ complaint was that God…
VI.
GOD’S RENEWAL AND ENLARGEMENT OF HIS PROMISES.
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(1) Now shalt thou see.—Moses’ complaint was that God delayed, and “was slack as concerning His promise.” Hitherto He had not “delivered His people at all.” The answer,”Now shalt thou see,” is an assurance that there will be no more delay; the work is just about to begin, and Moses will behold it. He will then cease to doubt.
With a strong hand shall he let them go.—Rather, through a strong hand: i.e., through the compulsion which my strong hand will exert on him,
Drive them.—Comp. Exo_12:31-33.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Exodus 5 - 6
Exodus 5 - 6
The effect of the first appeal to Pharaoh seemed ought but encouraging. The thought of losing Israel made him clutch them with greater eagerness and watch them with greater vigilance. Whenever Satan’s power becomes narrowed to a point, his rage increases. Thus it is here. The furnace is about to be quenched by the hand of redeeming love; but, ere it is, it blazes forth with greater fierceness and intensity. The devil does not like to let go any one whom he has had in his terrible grasp. He is "a strong man armed," and while he "keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace." But, blessed be God, there is "a stronger than he," who has taken from him "his armour wherein he trusted," and divided the spoils among the favoured objects of His everlasting love.
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"And afterward, Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness." (Ex. 5: 3) Such was Jehovah’s message to Pharaoh. He claimed full deliverance for the people, on the ground of their being His; and, in order that they might hold a feast to Him in the wilderness. Nothing can ever satisfy God in reference to His elect, but their entire emancipation from the yoke of bondage. "Loose him, and let him go" is, really, the grand motto in God’s gracious dealings with those who, though held in bondage by Satan, are, nevertheless, the objects of His eternal love.
When we contemplate Israel amid the brick-kilns of Egypt, we behold a graphic figure of the condition of every child of Adam by nature. There they were, crushed beneath the enemy’s galling yoke, and having no power to deliver themselves. The mere mention of the word liberty only caused the oppressor to bind his captives with a stronger fetter, and to lade them with a still more grievous burden. It was absolutely necessary that deliverance should come from without. But from whence has it to come? Where were the resources to pay their ransom? or where was the power to break their chains? And, even were there both the one and the other, where was the will? Who would take the trouble of delivering them? Alas! there was no hope, either within or around. They had only to look up, their refuge was in God. He had both the power and the will. He could accomplish a redemption both by price and by power. In Jehovah, and in Him alone, was there salvation for ruined and oppressed Israel.
Thus is it in every case. "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4: 12) The sinner is in the hands of one who rules him with despotic power. He is "sold under sin" "led captive by Satan at his will" - fast bound in the fetters of lust, passion, and temper, "without strength" - "without hope" - "without God." Such is the sinner’s condition. How, then, can he help himself? What can he do? He is the slave of another, and everything he does is done in the capacity of a slave. His thoughts, his words, his acts, are the thoughts, words, and acts of a slave. Yea, though he should weep and sigh for emancipation, his very tears and sighs are the melancholy proofs of his slavery. He may struggle for freedom; but his very struggle, though it evinces a desire for liberty, is the positive declaration of his bondage.
Nor is it merely a question of the sinner’s condition; his very nature is radically corrupt - wholly under the power of Satan. Hence, he not only needs to be introduced into a new condition, but also to be endowed with a new nature. The nature and the condition go together. If it were possible for the sinner to better his condition, what would it avail so long as his nature was irrecoverably bad? A nobleman might take a beggar off the streets and adopt him; he might endow him with a noble’s wealth and set him in a noble’s position; but he could not impart to him nobility of nature; and thus the nature of a beggarman would never be at home in the condition of a nobleman. There must be a nature to suit the condition; and there must be a condition to suit the capacity, the desires, the affections, and the tendencies of the nature.
Now, in the gospel of the grace of God, we are taught that the believer is introduced into an entirely new condition; that he is no longer viewed as in his former state of guilt and condemnation, but as in a state of perfect and everlasting justification; that the condition in which God now sees him is not only one of full pardon; but it is such that infinite holiness cannot find so much as a single stain. He has been taken out of his former condition of guilt, and placed absolutely and eternally in a new condition of unspotted righteousness. It is not, by any means, that his old condition is improved. This was utterly impossible. "That which is crooked cannot be made straight." "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" Nothing can be more opposed to the fundamental truth of the gospel than the theory of a gradual improvement in the sinner’s condition. He is born in a certain condition, and until he is "born again" he cannot be in any other. We may try to improve. He may resolve to be better for the future turn over a new leaf" - to live a different sort of life; but, all the while, he has not moved a single hair’s breadth out of his real condition as a sinner. He may become "religious" as it is called, he may try to pray, he may diligently attend to ordinances, and exhibit an appearance of moral reform; but none of these things can, in the smallest degree, affect his positive condition before God.
The case is precisely similar as to the question of nature. How can a man alter his nature? He may make it undergo a process, he may try to subdue it, to place it under discipline; but it is nature still. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." There must be a new nature as well as a new condition. And how is this to be had? By believing God’s testimony concerning His Son. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his Name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1: 12, 13) Here we learn that those who believe on the name of the only-begotten Son of God, have the right or privilege of being sons of God. They are made partakers of a new nature. They have gotten eternal life. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." (John 3: 36) "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. " (John 5: 24) "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." (John 17.3) "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." "He that hath the Son hath life." (1 John 5: 11, 12)
Such is the plain doctrine of the Word in reference to the momentous questions of condition and nature. But on what is all this founded How is the believer introduced into a condition of divine righteousness and made partaker of the divine nature? It all rests on the great truth that "JESUS DIED AND ROSE AGAIN." That Blessed One left the bosom of eternal love - the throne of glory - the mansions of unfading light came down into this world of guilt and woe - took upon Him the likeness of sinful flesh; and, having perfectly exhibited and perfectly glorified God, in all the movements of His blessed life here below, He died upon the cross, under the full weight of His people’s transgressions. By so doing, He divinely met all that was, or could be, against us. He magnified the law and made it honourable; and, having done so, He became a curse by hanging on the tree. Every claim was met, every enemy silenced, every obstacle removed. "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Infinite justice was satisfied, and infinite love can flow, in all its soothing and refreshing virtues, into the broken heart of the sinner; while, at the same time, the cleansing and atoning stream that flowed from the pierced side of a crucified Christ, perfectly meets all the cravings of a guilty and convicted conscience. The Lord Jesus, on the cross, stood in our place. He was our representative. He died, "the just for the unjust." "He was made sin for us." (2 Cor. 5: 21; 2 Peter 3: 18) He died the sinner’s death, was buried, and rose again, having accomplished all. Hence, there is absolutely nothing against the believer. He is linked with Christ and stands in the same condition of righteousness. "As he is so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)
This gives settled peace to the conscience. If I am no longer in a condition of guilt, but in a condition of justification; if God only sees me in Christ and as Christ, then, clearly, my portion is perfect peace. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5: 1) The blood of the Lamb has cancelled all the believer’s guilt, blotted out his heavy debt, and given him a perfectly blank page, in the presence of that holiness which "cannot look upon sin."
But the believer has not merely found peace with God; he is made a child of God, so that he can taste the sweetness of communion with the Father and the Son, through the power of the Holy Ghost. The cross is to be viewed in two ways: first, as satisfying God’s claims; secondly, as expressing God’s affections. If I look at my sins in connection with the claims of God as a Judge, I find, in the cross, a perfect settlement of those claims. God, as a Judge, has been divinely satisfied - yea, glorified, in the cross. But there is more than this. God had affections as well as claims; and, in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, all those affections are sweetly and touchingly told out into the sinner’s ear; while, at the same time, he is made the partaker of a new nature which is capable of enjoying those affections and of having fellowship with the heart from which they flow. "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." (1 Peter 3: 18) Thus we are not only brought into a condition, but unto a Person, even God Himself, and we are endowed with a nature which can delight in Him. We also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." (Rom. 5: 11)
What force and beauty, therefore, can we see in those emancipating words, "Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness." "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." (Luke 4: 18) The glad tidings of the gospel announce full deliverance from every yoke of bondage. Peace and liberty are the boons which that gospel bestows on all who believe it, as God has declared it.
And mark, it is "that they may hold a feast to me." If they were to get done with Pharaoh, it was that they might begin with God. This was a great change. Instead of toiling under Pharaoh’s taskmasters, they were to feast in company with Jehovah; and, although they were to pass from Egypt into the wilderness, still the divine presence was to accompany them; and if the wilderness was rough and dreary, it was the way to the land of Canaan. The divine purpose was, that they should hold a feast unto the Lord, in the wilderness; and, in order to do this, they should be "let go" out of Egypt.
However, Pharaoh was in no wise disposed to yield obedience to the divine mandate. "Who is the Lord," said he, "that I should obey his voice to let Israel go. I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." (Ex. 5: 2) Pharaoh most truly expressed, in these words, his real condition. His condition was one of ignorance and consequent disobedience. Both go together. If God be not known, He cannot be obeyed; for obedience is ever founded upon knowledge. When the soul is blessed with the knowledge of God, it finds this knowledge to be life, (John 17: 3) and life is power; and when I get power I can act, It is obvious that one cannot act without life; and therefore it is most unintelligent to set people upon doing certain things, in order to get that by which alone they can do anything.
But Pharaoh was as ignorant of himself as he was of the Lord. He did not know that he was a poor, vile worm of the earth, and that he had been raised up for the express purpose of making known the glory of the very One whom he said he knew not. (Ex. 9: 16; Rom. 9: 17) "And they said, The God of the Hebrews has met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword, And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their work? Get you unto your burdens . . . . . let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words." (Ver. 3-9)
What a development of the secret springs of the human heart we have here! What complete incompetency to enter into the things of God! All the divine titles and the divine revelations were, in Pharaoh’s estimation, "vain words." What did he know or care about "three days journey into the wilderness," or "a feast to Jehovah?" How could he understand the need of such a journey, or the nature or object of such a feast? Impossible. He could understand burden-bearing and brick-making; these things had an air of reality about them, in his judgement; but as to ought of God, His service, or His worship, he could only regard it in the light of an idle chimera, devised by those who only wanted an excuse to make their escape from the stern realities of actual life.
Thus has it, too often, been with the wise and great of this world. They have ever been the most forward to write folly and vanity upon the divine testimonies. Hearken, for example, to the estimate which the "most noble Feasts" formed of the grand question at issue between Paul and the Jews: "they had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." (Acts 25: 19) Alas! how little he knew what he was saying! How little he knew what was involved in the question, as to whether "Jesus" was "dead" or "alive!" He thought not of the solemn bearing of that momentous question upon himself and his friends, Agrippa and Bernice; but that did not alter the matter; he and they know somewhat more about it now, though in their passing moment of earthly glory they regarded it as a superstitious question, wholly beneath the notice of men of common sense, and only fit to occupy the disordered brain of visionary enthusiasts. Yes; the stupendous question which fixes the destiny of every child of Adam - on which is founded the present and everlasting condition of the Church and the world which stands connected with all the divine counsels - this question was, in the judgement of Feasts, a vain superstition.
Thus was it in Pharaoh’s case. He knew nothing of "the Lord God of the Hebrews" - the great "I AM," and hence he regarded all that Moses and Aaron had said to him, in reference to doing sacrifice to God, as "vain words." The things of God must ever seem vain, profitless, and unmeaning, to the unsanctified mind of man. His name may be made use of as part of the flippant phraseology of a cold and formal religiousness; but He Himself is not known. His precious name, which, to a believer’s heart, has wrapped up in it all that he can possibly need or desire, has no significancy, no power, no virtue for an unbeliever. All, therefore, connected with God, His words, His counsels, His thoughts, His ways, everything, in short, that treats of, or refers to, Him, is regarded as "vain words."
However, the time is rapidly approaching when it will not be thus. The judgement-seat of Christ, the terrors of the world to come, the surges of the lake of fire, will not be "Vain words." Assuredly not; and it should be the great aim of all who, through grace, believe them now to be realities, to press them upon the consciences of those who, like Pharaoh, regard the making of bricks as the only thing worth thinking about - the only thing that can be called reel and solid.
Alas! that even Christians should so frequently be found living in the region of sight, the region of earth, the region of nature, as to lose the deep, abiding, influential sense of the reality of divine and heavenly things. We want to live more in the region of faith, the region of heaven, the region of the "new creation." Then we should see things as God sees them, think about them as He thinks; and our whole course and character would be more elevated, more disinterested, more thoroughly separated from earth and earthly things.
But Moses’ sorest trial did not arise from Pharaoh’s judgement about his mission The true and Wholehearted servant of Christ must ever expect to be looked on, by the men of this world, as a mere visionary enthusiast. The point of view from which they contemplate him is such as to lead us to look for this judgement and none other. The more faithful he is to his heavenly Master, the more he walks in His footsteps, the more conformed he is to His image, the more likely he is to be considered, by the sons of earth, as one "beside himself." This, therefore, should neither disappoint nor discourage him. But then it is a far more painful thing when his service and testimony are misunderstood, unheeded, or rejected by those who are themselves the specific objects thereof. When such is the case, he needs to be much with God, much in the secret of His mind, much in the power of communion, to have his spirit sustained in the abiding reality of his path and service. Under such trying circumstances, if one be not fully persuaded of the divine commission, and conscious of the divine presence, he will be almost sure to break down.
Had not Moses been thus upheld, his heart must have utterly failed him when the augmented pressure of Pharaoh’s power elicited from the officers of the children of Israel such desponding and depressing words as these: - "The Lord look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us." This was gloomy enough; and Moses felt it so, for "he returned unto the Lord, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? Why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came unto Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all." The aspect of things had become most discouraging, at the very moment when deliverance seemed at hand; just as, in nature, the darkest hour of the night is often that which immediately precedes the dawn of the morning. Thus will it assuredly be, in Israel’s history, in the latter day. The moment of most profound darkness and depressing gloom will precede the bursting of "the Sun of Righteousness" from behind the cloud, with healing in His fingers, to heal eternally, "the hurt of the daughter of His people."
We may well question how far genuine faith, or a mortified will, dictated the "wherefore?" and the "why?" of Moses, in the above quotation. Still, the Lord does not rebuke a remonstrance drawn forth by the intense pressure of the moment. He most graciously replies, " Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land." (Ex. 6: 1) This reply breathes peculiar grace. Instead of reproving the petulance which could presume to call in question the unsearchable ways of the great I AM, that ever gracious One seeks to relieve the harassed spirit of His servant, by unfolding to him what He was about to do. This was worthy of the blessed God - the unupbraiding Giver of every good and every perfect gift. "He knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust." (Ps. 103: 24)
Nor is it merely in His actings that He would cause the heart to find its solace, but in Himself - in His very name and character. This is full, divine, and everlasting blessedness. When the heart can find its sweet relief in God Himself - when it can retreat into the strong tower which His name affords - when it can find, in His character, a perfect answer to all its need, then truly, it is raised far above the region of the creature-it can turn away from earth’s fair promises - it can place the proper value on man’s lofty pretensions. The heart which is endowed with an experimental knowledge of God can not only look forth upon earth, and say "all is vanity," but it can also look straight up to Him, and say, "all my springs are in thee."
"And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty; but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them. And I have also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant." "JEHOVAH" is the title which He takes as the Deliverer of His people, on the ground of His covenant of pure and sovereign grace He reveals Himself as the great self-existing Source of redeeming love, establishing His counsels, fulfilling His promises, delivering His elect people from every enemy and every evil. It was Israel’s privilege ever to abide under the safe covert of that significant title - a title which displays God acting for His own glory, and taking up His oppressed people in order to show forth in them that glory.
"Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgements. And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to yon a God; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land concerning the which I did swear to give it unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the Lord. " (Ver. 6-8.) All this speaks the purest, freest, richest grace. Jehovah presents Himself to the hearts of His people as the One who was to act in them, for them, and with them, for the display of His own glory. Ruined and helpless as they were, He had come down to show forth His glory, to exhibit His grace, and to furnish a sample of His power, in their full deliverance. His glory and their salvation were inseparably connected. They were afterwards reminded of all this, as we read in the book of Deuteronomy. "The Lord did not set His love upon yon nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people; but because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt." (Ex. 7: 7, 8)
Nothing is more calculated to assure and establish the doubting, trembling heart than the knowledge that God has taken us up, just as we are, and in the full intelligence of what we are; and, moreover, that He can never make any fresh discovery to cause an alteration in the character and measure of His love. "Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end." (John 13) Whom He loves and as He loves, He loves unto the end. This is an unspeakable comfort. God knew all about us - He knew the very worst of us, when He manifested His love to us in the gift of His Son. He knew what we needed, and He provided it. He knew what was due, and He paid it. He knew what was to be wrought, and He wrought it. His own requirements had to be met, and He met them. It is all His own work. Hence, we find Him saying to Israel, as in the above passage, "I will bring you out" - "I will bring you in" - "I will take you to me" - "I will give you the land" - "I am Jehovah." It was all what He could do, as founded upon what He was. Until this great truth is fully laid hold of, until it enters into the soul, in the power of the Holy Ghost, there cannot be settled peace. The heart can never be happy or the conscience at rest until one knows and believes that all divine requirements have been divinely answered.
The remainder of our section is taken up with a record of "the heads of their fathers’ houses," and is very interesting, as showing us Jehovah coming in and numbering those that belonged to Himself, though they were still in the possession of the enemy. Israel was God’s people, and He here counts up those on whom He had a sovereign claim. Amazing grace! To find an object in those who were in the midst of all the degradation of Egyptian bondage! This was worthy of God. The One who had made the worlds, who was surrounded by hosts of unfallen angels, ever ready to "do his pleasure," should come down for the purpose of taking up a number of bondslaves with whom He condescended to connect His name. He came down and stood amid the brick-kilns of Egypt, and there beheld a people groaning beneath the lash of the task-masters, and He uttered those memorable accents, "Let my people go;" and, having so said, He proceeded to count them up, as much as to say, "These are mine; let me see how many I have, that not one may be left behind." "He taketh up the beggar from the dunghill, to set him amongst the princes of his people, and to make him inherit the throne of glory." (1 Sam. 2)
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–8 Vers. 1-8. The expostulation of Moses did not offend…
DEPRESSION OF MOSES, AND CONFIRMATION OF HIS MISSION.
Vers. 1-8. The expostulation of Moses did not offend God. God gave him, in reply to it, a most gracious series of promises and assurances, well calculated to calm his fears, assuage his griefs, and comfort his heart; and he confirmed the whole to him by his name JEHOVAH, "the Only Existent," and therefore" the Eternal and Immutable." This name he had previously revealed to Moses at Mount Sinai, as his peculiar name, and the one by which he would choose to be called. (Exo_3:13-15) He had also told him to proclaim this name to the people. This command is now repeated (ver. 6) very solemnly; and with it are coupled the promises above alluded to.
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1. That God would certainly bring the Israelites out of Egypt, despite theunwillingness of Pharaoh (vers. 1 and 6),
2. That he would do this "with a stretched-out arm," and by means of"great judgments" (ver. 6);
3. That he would keep the covenant which he had made with the patriarchsto give their descendants the laud of Canaan (ver. 4) and would assuredly "bring in" the Israelites to that land, and give it them for a heritage" (ver. 8).
Now shalt thou see. There was encouragement in the very word "now." Moses" complaint was, that God delayed his coming, would not show himself, was "slack concerning his promise." In reply he is told that there is to be no longer any delay the work is just about to commence. "Now shalt thou see." With a strong hand shall he let them go. The "strong hand" is not Pharaoh"s, but God"s. "By means of my strong hand" (or "overpowering might") "laid upon him shall he be induced to let them go," and similarly with the other clause. Drive them out. This phrase well expresses the final anxiety of Pharaoh to be rid of the Israelites. (Exo_12:31, Exo_12:22)
Ver. 1. God"s condescension to a weak faith.
As the Lord Jesus condescended to Thomas, and bade him "reach hither his finger and behold his hands, and reach hither his hand and thrust it into his side," so that he might be no longer "faithless, but believing", (Joh_20:27) so Jehovah now declared to Moses that, if he could not walk by faith, sight should be vouchsafed to him. "Now shalt thou see," etc. Human infirmity is so greet, man"s faith is so weak, the best are so liable to accesses of distrust and despondency, that, if God were extreme to mark what is in this way done amiss, few indeed would be those who could "abide it." Therefore, in his mercy, he condescends. Well for man could he breathe continually the higher, rarer, atmosphere of faith. But, if he cannot, yet has Godward aspirations, so that he takes his distrust and his despondency to God, as Moses did, God will in no wise cast him out. He will not "break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax." He will accept the imperfect service that is still service, and allow his servant to work in a lower sphere. Henceforth the faith of Moses was not much tried he had soon sight to walk by. When once the series of plagues began, hecould no longer ask, "Why is it that thou hast sent me?" He could see that the end was being advanced the deliverance being extorted from the king and that the day of final triumph was fast coming.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR Vers. 1-9. A Divine commentary on a Divine name.
The antiquity of the name Jehovah, setting aside direct testimonies to its occurrence in earlier scriptures, is sufficiently proved by its etymology (from havah, an old and, in the days of Moses, obsolete form of the verb "to be"), and from its presence (in composition) in pre-Mosaic proper names (e.g. ver. 20). It is absurd to press this passage in proof of the ignorance of the patriarchs of this name of God, when one observes
1. That the context plainly relates to a commentary which God was aboutto give on this name in deeds.
2. That the name is not here announced, but is presupposed as known name Jehovah.
3. That in Exo_3:14-16, where it is announced, it is expressly referred to as a name of older date God styling himself repeatedly, "Jehovah God of your fathers." The knowledge of God by this name in the present passage has obvious reference to a knowledge derived from manifestation of the attributes implied in the meaning of the name.
I "JEHOVAH" IN CONTRAST WITH "EL-SHADDAI" (ver. 3).
1. El-Shaddai means, as translated, "God Almighty." It denotes in God the simple attribute of power All-Mightiness power exerted chiefly in the region of the natural life.
2. Jehovah, on the other hand, has a deeper and wider, an infinitely fullerand richer meaning. It denotes God as possessed of the perfections of the Absolute self-identical and changeless because self-existent and eternal. God"s eternally what he Is (Exo_3:14) the Being who is and remains one with himself in all he thinks, purposes, and does. This implies, together with immutability, the attribute of self-determining freedom, and that unlimited rule (dominion, sovereignty) in the worlds of matter and mind, which is of the essence of the conception of the Absolute. Hence such passages as these: am Jehovah, I change not"; (Mal_3:6) "Whatsoever Jehovah pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and in all. deep places"; (Psa_130:6) "Jehovah, he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath; there is none else". (Deu_4:39) Jehovah is, moreover, the God of gracious purpose. It is this which gave the name its depth of interest to the Hebrew bondsmen, who were not likely to be greatly influenced by purely ontological conceptions. The chosen sphere for the manifestation of the attributes denoted by these names of God was that marked out by the promises of the Covenant. El-Shaddai, e.g. , while declaring the possession by God of the attribute of power in general, had immediate reference to the manifestations of power which God would give in the birth of Isaac, and in the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham of a numerous posterity. (Gen_16:1-7) It was power working in the interests of grace, in subserviency to love. The same is true of the name Jehovah. A view of God in his bare absoluteness would awaken only a speculative interest; but it is different when this self-existent, eternal Being is seen entering into history, and revealing himself as the God of compassionating love. Grace and mercy are felt to be no longer foreign to the meaning of the name, but to be as much a part of it as changelessness and freedom. This, accordingly, was what the name told to Israel; not simply that there was an Absolute, or even that he who had entered into covenant with the Fathers, and was now about to undertake their deliverance, was this absolute God; but rather, that it was in the work of their salvation that his perfections as Absolute were to be surprisingly and surpassingly exhibited. Their redemption was to be a chosen field for the manifestation of his Jehovah attributes. There would be given in it a discovery and demonstration of these surpassing everything that had hitherto been known. And was not this glorious comfort to a nation lying in darkness and the shadow of death!
II THE HISTORICAL EXHIBITION OF THIS CONTRAST.
1. God revealed as El-Shaddai (ver. 3). God was made known as El-Shaddai in the birth of Isaac, (Rom_4:17-22) in the care exercised over the patriarchs in their wanderings, (Gen_28:15) in the provision made for their temporal necessities, (Gen_45:5-9) in the increase and preservation of the chosen race in Egypt. (Exo_1:7, Exo_1:12, 20 3:2) This name, however, was inadequate to express the richer aspects and relations of the Divine character brought to light in the Exodus, and in the subsequent experiences of the people.
2. The transition from El-Shaddai to Jehovah. Vers. 4-6 narrate the steps by which the way was prepared for the new and higher manifestation. The preparation involved
(1) The establishment of a covenant of promise (ver. 4). If God is revealed as Jehovah when seen acting with unbounded freedom in fulfilment of a purpose, then it was necessary, in order that the freedom and sovereignty of the worker might be rendered completely manifest, that the purpose should be previously declared. Only on the basis of a previously declared purpose could the Jehovah attributes be conspicuously and conclusively displayed. (See interesting remarks on this in Bruce"s "Chief End of Revelation" ch 4.)
(2) The development of a crisis in the situation of Israel (ver. 5). This crisis was marked on the human side by the sufferings of Israel reaching a pitch of intensity which imperatively called for a Divine interposition; and on the Divine side, by God arousing himself, and determining himself to interfere on their behalf. (Exo_2:23-25) We have already seen that the bondage was not without Divine permission. We have traced it in
(1) A punishment for sins,
(2) A trial of faith, and
(3) A moral preparation.
We have now to view in it a situation providentially prepared with the design of affording the tidiest possible scope for the display of the truth, grace, power, and all-embracing sovereignty of the great Being who was revealing himself in Israel"s history.
3. God revealed as Jehovah (vers. 6-9). This revelation would embrace
(1) The deliverance of the people from the bondage and misery of Egypt, and this with great accompaniments of power and judgment (ver. 6).
(2) Their adoption by God as a people to himself (ver. 7).
(3) Their final settlement in Canaan, in fulfilment of promise (ver. 8). By such deeds would God make it manifest that he was indeed Jehovah, their God. He would display his might; would demonstrate his supremacy as Moral Ruler; would magnify his covenant-keeping faithfulness; would reveal himself as the Living Personal God, working freely in history in pursuance of gracious purposes, and, in spite of all human opposition, bringing them to pass.
Lessons:
1. How wonderful to contemplate God in the majesty of his perfections as the Great I Am the absolute and unconditioned Being! But what language will express the condescension and grace displayed in the stooping down of this absolute Being to enter into covenant engagements with man, even to the extent of binding himself with oaths to fulfil the promises given by his own free goodness.
2. The manifestation of the Jehovah attributes in the deliverance of Israelfrom Egypt has its higher counterpart in the discovery of them since made in the redemption of men from sin and Satan through Christ. Christ redeems us from sin"s burden and from Satan"s tyranny. He does this in virtue of the "stretched-out arm" and "mighty judgments" with which, while on earth, he overcame the Prince of the power of this world; himself also enduring the judgment of God in being "made sin for us," "that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." By this atonement and victory, in the might of which he has now ascended on high, leading captivity captive, we, being reconciled to God, are formed into a people for his praise, and he becomes our God; the same power that redeemed us working in us to deliver us from sin in our members, and to prepare us for a heavenly inheritance; to which, as the goal of all God"s leading of us, the promises immovably point forward. J.O. (Rom_8:1, Rom_8:2; Eph_4:8; Col_1:12-15 Col_2:15; 1Pe_2:3-10)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 6 Now shalt thou see what I will do.
Exo_6:1
Now shalt thou see what I will do.
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Gods reply to the prayer of a disappointed worker
I. This reply to the prayer of Moses intimated that God would bring the true result of his mission more thoroughly within the cognizance of his senses. And the Lord said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh.
1. The mission had hitherto been a great tax upon the faith of Moses. The first repulse made him cry out for the visible and the tangible.
2. Now the mission is lowered to the sensuous vision of Moses.
II. This reply to the prayer of Moses vindicated his conduct against the recent insinuations and reproach of the Israelites. Men often take a wrong view of our conduct. God always takes the right view. He knows when His servants are doing what He tells them. He sends them messages of approval for so doing. This vindication--
1. Would reassure Moses in his work.
2. Would clear his conscience from all condemnation.
3. Would enable him to interpret his apparent failure.
III. This reply to the prayer of Moses indicated how thoroughly the work announced by God should be accomplished. For with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.
1. This shows how wicked men are, under the providence of God, brought to do that which they had once resolutely refused. The sinner knoweth not the future, or he would act with greater wisdom in the present.
2. God makes these revelations in response to prayer, that He may reanimate the dispirited worker.
IV. In reply to the prayer of Moses, God vouchsafes a new and sublime revelation of his character.
1. A sublime revelation of His name.
2. A comforting reference to His covenant.
3. A pathetic reference to the sorrow of Israel.
Lessons:
1. That God speaks to disappointed souls in prayer.
2. That the Divine communings with a disappointed soul have an uplifting tendency.
3. That God deals compassionately with the weakness of Christian workers. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Gods long restrained wrath
When the ice on the great American rivers is broken up, it is sometimes obstructed in its course towards the sea by a log of wood, or something else, that arrests it. But then, as block after block of ice accumulates, the waters above increase in volume and weight, till their force, with mighty crash, sweeps away all the mass. And so the wrath of God, though long restrained by His love and mercy, sweeps away the incorrigible sinner to perdition. (H. R. Burton.)
Conditions of successful work for God
1. Faith in God, and honest conviction that God will do as He says He will.
2. Courage to ,do what faith declares. God doesnt use cowards or faint-hearted men to do much for Him. He told Joshua to be of good courage.
3. Perseverance. Keep right on in the place God gives you to work for Him. Many men fail right on the eve of battle. The best silver mine in England was worked for a long time by a man who became discouraged just before it yielded the richest ingots of choicest silver, and he sold out for a song and lost a princely fortune. Keep at it. Get others to help, and work and plod and win success.
4. Enthusiasm is a valuable element, and one that most men need. Too many are afraid of enthusiasm, but all of us need to put more fire and feeling in what we do for the Lord. (D. L. Moody.)
The judgments of God upon wicked men
I. That God sends severe judgements on men who reject His commands. Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh.
1. Notwithstanding his kingship.
2. Notwithstanding his obstinacy.
3. Notwithstanding his despotism.
II. That these judgments are often witnessed by Christian people. Now shalt thou see.
1. They are seen clearly.
2. Retributively.
3. Solemnly. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Gods everlasting shalls
It is a great thing to get hold of one of Gods everlasting shalls. For when God says a thing shall be done, who shall hinder? When God says shall, you may be sure that He is stirring up His strength and making bare His mighty arm, to do mighty and terrible things in righteousness. Just read through this chapter, and note how Jehovah asserts Himself--I am the Lord; I have remembered My covenant; I will bring you out from under the burdens of Egypt; I will rid you of their bondage; I will redeem you with a stretched out arm; I will take you to Me for a people; I will bring you into the land concerning which I did swear to give it to Abraham, and I will give it to you; I am the Lord. All this is very refreshing and encouraging to me. It must have been so to Moses, as he stood there and listened to these strong and blessed words. And so I learn from such words this lesson: when I am discouraged or cast down either about my own salvation, or about the work of the Lord--to turn to the blessed Scriptures and search through the pages, and read over and over again the strong, sure words of God. They sound like bugle-blasts to me, calling me to faith and service. So may the strong words of God reassure any fainting heart! Be sure that He will not be untrue to even the least of the promises He has made to you; but will fulfil them all most gloriously. These promises are like the cakes baked for Elijah, in the strength of which he went for forty days. Only we may eat them fresh every day if we are so disposed. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1
CHAPTER VI.
THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF MOSES.
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Exo_6:1-30.
We have seen that the name Jehovah expresses not a philosophic meditation, but the most bracing and reassuring truth--viz., that an immutable and independent Being sustains His people; and this great title is therefore reaffirmed with emphasis in the hour of mortal discouragement. It is added that their fathers knew God by the name of God Almighty, but by His name Jehovah was He not known, or made known, unto them. Now, it is quite clear that they were not utterly ignorant of this title, for no such theory as that it was hitherto mentioned by anticipation only, can explain the first syllable in the name of the mother of Moses himself, nor the assertion that in the time of Seth men began to call upon the name of Jehovah (Gen_4:26), nor the name of the hill of Abraham's sacrifice, Jehovah-jireh (Gen_22:14). Yet the statement cannot be made available for the purposes of any reasonable and moderate scepticism, since the sceptical theory demands a belief in successive redactions of the work in which an error so gross could not have escaped detection.
And the true explanation is that this Name was now, for the first time, to be realised as a sustaining power. The patriarchs had known the name; how its fitness should be realised: God should be known by it. They had drawn support and comfort from that simpler view of the Divine protection which said, "I am the Almighty God: walk before Me and be thou perfect" (Gen_17:1). But thenceforth all the experience of the past was to reinforce the energies of the present, and men were to remember that their promises came from One who cannot change. Others, like Abraham, had been stronger in faith than Moses. But faith is not the same as insight, and Moses was the greatest of the prophets (Deu_34:10). To him, therefore, it was given to confirm the courage of his nation by this exalting thought of God. And the Lord proceeds to state what His promises to the patriarchs were, and joins together (as we should do) the assurance of His compassionate heart and of His inviolable pledges: "I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel, ... and I have remembered My covenant."
It has been the same, in turn, with every new revelation of the Divine. The new was implicit in the old, but when enforced, unfolded, reapplied, men found it charged with unsuspected meaning and power, and as full of vitality and development as a handful of dry seeds when thrown into congenial soil. So it was pre-eminently with the doctrine of the Messiah. It will be the same hereafter with the doctrine of the kingdom of peace and the reign of the saints on earth. Some day men will smile at our crude theories and ignorant controversies about the Millennium. We, meantime, possess the saving knowledge of Christ amid many perplexities and obscurities. And so the patriarchs, who knew God Almighty, but not by His name Jehovah, were not lost for want of the knowledge of His name, but saved by faith in Him, in the living Being to Whom all these names belong, and Who shall yet write upon the brows of His people some new name, hitherto undreamed by the ripest of the saints and the purest of the Churches. Meantime, let us learn the lessons of tolerance for other men's ignorance, remembering the ignorance of the father of the faithful, tolerance for difference of views, remembering how the unusual and rare name of God was really the precursor of a brighter revelation, and yet again, when our hearts are faint with longing for new light, and weary to death of the babbling of old words, let us learn a sober and cautious reconsideration, lest perhaps the very truth needed for altered circumstance and changing problem may lie, unheeded and dormant, among the dusty old phrases from which we turn away despairingly. Moreover, since the fathers knew the name Jehovah, yet gained from it no special knowledge of God, such as they had from His Almightiness, we are taught that discernment is often more at fault than revelation. To the quick perception and plastic imagination of the artist, our world reveals what the boor will never see. And the saint finds, in the homely and familiar words of Scripture, revelations for His soul that are unknown to common men. Receptivity is what we need far more than revelation.
Again is Moses bidden to appeal to the faith of his countrymen, by a solemn repetition of the Divine promise. If the tyranny is great, they shall be redeemed with a stretched out arm, that is to say, with a palpable interposition of the power of God, "and with great judgments." It is the first appearance in Scripture of this phrase, afterwards so common. Not mere vengeance upon enemies or vindication of subjects is in question: the thought is that of a deliberate weighing of merits, and rendering out of measured penalties. Now, the Egyptian mythology had a very clear and solemn view of judgment after death. If king and people had grown cruel, it was because they failed to realise remote punishments, and did not believe in present judgments, here, in this life. But there is a God that judgeth in the earth. Not always, for mercy rejoiceth over judgment. We may still pray, "Enter not into judgment with Thy servants, O Lord, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified." But when men resist warnings, then retribution begins even here. Sometimes it comes in plague and overthrow, sometimes in the worse form of a heart made fat, the decay of sensibilities abused, the dying out of spiritual faculty. Pharaoh was to experience both, the hardening of his heart and the ruin of his fortunes.
It is added, "I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you for a God." This is the language, not of a mere purpose, a will that has resolved to vindicate the right, but of affection. God is about to adopt Israel to Himself, and the same favour which belonged to rare individuals in the old time is now offered to a whole nation. Just as the heart of each man is gradually educated, learning first to love a parent and a family, and so led on to national patriotism, and at last to a world-wide philanthropy, so was the religious conscience of mankind awakened to believe that Abraham might be the friend of God, and then that His oath might be confirmed unto the children, and then that He could take Israel to Himself for a people, and at last that God loved the world.
It is not religion to think that God condescends merely to save us. He cares for us. He takes us to Himself, He gives Himself away to us, in return, to be our God.
Such a revelation ought to have been more to Israel than any pledge of certain specified advantages. It was meant to be a silken tie, a golden clasp, to draw together the almighty Heart and the hearts of these downtrodden slaves. Something within Him desires their little human love; they shall be to Him for a people. So He said again, "My son, give Me thine heart." And so, when He carried to the uttermost these unsought, unhoped for, and, alas! unwelcomed overtures of condescension, and came among us, He would have gathered, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, those who would not. It is not man who conceives, from definite services received, the wild hope of some spark of real affection in the bosom of the Eternal and Mysterious One. It is not man, amid the lavish joys and splendours of creation, who conceives the notion of a supreme Heart, as the explanation of the universe. It is God Himself Who says, "I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God."
Nor is it human conversion that begins the process, but a Divine covenant and pledge, by which God would fain convert us to Himself; even as the first disciples did not accost Jesus, but He turned and spoke to them the first question and the first invitation; "What seek ye?... Come, and ye shall see."
To-day, the choice of the civilised world has to be made between a mechanical universe and a revealed love, for no third possibility survives.
This promise establishes a relationship, which God never afterwards cancelled. Human unbelief rejected its benefits, and chilled the mutual sympathies which it involved; but the fact always remained, and in their darkest hour they could appeal to God to remember His covenant and the oath which He sware.
And this same assurance belongs to us. We are not to become good, or desirous of goodness, in order that God may requite with affection our virtues or our wistfulness. Rather we are to arise and come to our Father, and to call Him Father, although we are not worthy to be called His sons. We are to remember how Jesus said, "If ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him!" and to learn that He is the Father of those who are evil, and even of those who are still unpardoned, as He said again, "If ye forgive not ... neither will your heavenly Father forgive you."
Much controversy about the universal Fatherhood of God would be assuaged if men reflected upon the significant distinction which our Saviour drew between His Fatherhood and our sonship, the one always a reality of the Divine affection, the other only a possibility, for human enjoyment or rejection: "Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you, that ye may be sons of your Father Which is in heaven" (Mat_5:44-45). There is no encouragement to presumption in the assertion of the Divine Fatherhood upon such terms. For it speaks of a love which is real and deep without being feeble and indiscriminate. It appeals to faith because there is an absolute fact to lean upon, and to energy because privilege is conditional. It reminds us that our relationship is like that of the ancient Israel,--that we are in a covenant, as they were, but that the carcases of many of them fell in the wilderness; although God had taken them for a people, and was to them a God, and said, "Israel is My son, even My firstborn."
It is added that faith shall develop into knowledge. Moses is to assure them now that they "shall know" hereafter that the Lord is Jehovah their God. And this, too, is a universal law, that we shall know if we follow on to know: that the trial of our faith worketh patience, and patience experience, and we have so dim and vague an apprehension of Divine realities, chiefly because we have made but little trial, and have not tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious.
In this respect, as in so many more, religion is analogous with nature. The squalor of the savage could be civilised, and the distorted and absurd conceptions of medi¾val science could be corrected, only by experiment, persistently and wisely carried out.
And it is so in religion: its true evidence is unknown to these who never bore its yoke; it is open to just such raillery and rejection as they who will not love can pour upon domestic affection and the sacred ties of family life; but, like these, it vindicates itself, in the rest of their souls, to those who will take the yoke and learn. And its best wisdom is not of the cunning brain but of the open heart, that wisdom from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated.
And thus, while God leads Israel, they shall know that He is Jehovah, and true to His highest revelations of Himself.
All this they heard, and also, to define their hope and brighten it, the promise of Palestine was repeated; but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage. Thus the body often holds the spirit down, and kindly allowance is made by Him Who knoweth our frame and remembereth that we are dust, and Who, in the hour of His own agony, found the excuse for His unsympathising followers that the spirit was willing although the flesh was weak. So when Elijah made request for himself that he might die, in the utter reaction which followed his triumph on Carmel and his wild race to Jezreel, the good Physician did not dazzle him with new splendours of revelation until after he had slept, and eaten miraculous food, and a second time slept and eaten.
But if the anguish of the body excuses much weakness of the spirit, it follows, on the other hand, that men are responsible to God for that heavy weight which is laid upon the spirit by pampered and luxurious bodies, incapable of self-sacrifice, rebellious against the lightest of His demands. It is suggestive, that Moses, when sent again to Pharaoh, objected, as at first: "Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips?"
Every new hope, every great inspiration which calls the heroes of God to a fresh attack upon the powers of Satan, is checked and hindered more by the coldness of the Church than by the hostility of the world. That hostility is expected, and can be defied. But the infidelity of the faithful is appalling indeed.
We read with wonder the great things which Christ has promised to believing prayer, and, at the same time, although we know painfully that we have never claimed and dare not claim these promises, we wonder equally at the foreboding question, "When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find the faith (faith in its fulness) on the earth?" (Luke xviii. 8). But we ought to remember that our own low standard helps to form the standard of attainment for the Church at large--that when one member suffers, all the members suffer with it--that many a large sacrifice would be readily made for Christ, at this hour, if only ease and pleasure were at stake, which is refused because it is too hard to be called well-meaning enthusiasts by those who ought to glorify God in such attainment, as the first brethren did in the zeal and the gifts of Paul.
The vast mountains raise their heads above mountain ranges which encompass them; and it is not when the level of the whole Church is low, that giants of faith and of attainment may be hoped for. Nay, Christ stipulates for the agreement of two or three, to kindle and make effectual the prayers which shall avail.
For the purification of our cities, for the shaming of our legislation until it fears God as much as a vested interest, for the reunion of those who worship the same Lord, for the conversion of the world, and first of all for the conversion of the Church, heroic forces are demanded. But all the tendency of our half-hearted, abject, semi-Christianity is to repress everything that is unconventional, abnormal, likely to embroil us with our natural enemy, the world; and who can doubt that, when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed, we shall know of many an aspiring soul, in which the sacred fire had begun to burn, which sank back into lethargy and the commonplace, murmuring in its despair, "Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me?"
It was the last fear which ever shook the great heart of the emancipator Moses.
At the beginning of the grand historical work, of which all this has been the prelude, there is set the pedigree of Moses and Aaron, according to "the heads of their fathers' houses,"--- an epithet which indicates a subdivision of the "family," as the family is a subdivision of the tribe. Of the sons of Jacob, Reuben and Simeon are mentioned, to put Levi in his natural third place. And from Levi to Moses only four generations are mentioned, favouring somewhat the briefer scheme of chronology which makes four centuries cover all the time from Abraham, and not the captivity alone. But it is certain that this is a mere recapitulation of the more important links in the genealogy. In Num_26:58-59, six generations are reckoned instead of four; in 1Ch_2:3 there are seven generations; and elsewhere in the same book (1Ch_6:22) there are ten. It is well known that similar omissions of obscure or unworthy links occur in St. Matthew's pedigree of our Lord, although some stress is there laid upon the recurrent division into fourteens. And it is absurd to found any argument against the trustworthiness of the narrative upon a phenomenon so frequent, and so sure to be avoided by a forger, or to be corrected by an unscrupulous editor. In point of fact, nothing is less likely to have occurred, if the narrative were a late invention.
Neither, in that case, would the birth of the great emancipator be ascribed to the union of Amram with his father's sister, for such marriages were distinctly forbidden by the law (Lev_18:14).
Nor would the names of the children of the founder of the nation be omitted, while those of Aaron are recorded, unless we were dealing with genuine history, which knows that the sons of Aaron inherited the lawful priesthood, while the descendants of Moses were the jealous founders of a mischievous schism (Jdg_18:30, R.V.).
Nor again, if this were a religious romance, designed to animate the nation in its later struggles, should we read of the hesitation and the fears of a leader "of uncircumcised lips," instead of the trumpet-like calls to action of a noble champion.
Nor does the broken-spirited meanness of Israel at all resemble the conception, popular in every nation, of a virtuous and heroic antiquity, a golden age. It is indeed impossible to reconcile the motives and the date to which this narrative is ascribed by some, with the plain phenomena, with the narrative itself.
Nor is it easy to understand why the Lord, Who speaks of bringing out "My hosts, My people, the children of Israel" (Exo_7:4, etc.), should never in the Pentateuch be called the Lord of Hosts, if that title were in common use when it was written; for no epithet would better suit the song of Miriam or the poetry of the Fifth Book.
When Moses complained that he was of uncircumcised lips, the Lord announced that He had already made His servant as a god unto Pharaoh, having armed him, even then, with the terrors which are soon to shake the tyrant's soul.
It is suggestive and natural that his very education in a court should render him fastidious, less willing than a rougher man might have been to appear before the king after forty years of retirement, and feeling almost physically incapable of speaking what he felt so deeply, in words that would satisfy his own judgment. Yet God had endowed him, even then, with a supernatural power far greater than any facility of expression. In his weakness he would thus be made strong; and the less fit he was to assert for himself any ascendency over Pharaoh, the more signal would be the victory of his Lord, when he became "very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people" (Exo_11:3).
As a proof of this mastery he was from the first to speak to the haughty king through his brother, as a god through some prophet, being too great to reveal himself directly. It is a memorable phrase; and so lofty an assertion could never, in the myth of a later period, have been ascribed to an origin so lowly as the reluctance of Moses to expose his deficiency in elocution.
Therefore he should henceforth be emboldened by the assurance of qualification bestowed already: not only by the hope of help and achievement yet to come, but by the certainty of present endowment. And so should each of us, in his degree, be bold, who have gifts differing according to the grace given unto us.
It is certain that every living soul has at least one talent, and is bound to improve it. But how many of us remember that this loan implies a commission from God, as real as that of prophet and deliverer, and that nothing but our own default can prevent it from being, at the last, received again with usury?
The same bravery, the same confidence when standing where his Captain has planted him, should inspire the prophet, and him that giveth alms, and him that showeth mercy; for all are members in one body, and therefore animated by one invincible Spirit from above (Rom_12:4-9).
The endowment thus given to Moses made him "as a god" to Pharaoh.
We must not take this to mean only that he had a prophet or spokesman, or that he was made formidable, but that the peculiar nature of his prowess would be felt. It was not his own strength. The supernatural would become visible in him. He who boasted "I know not Jehovah" would come to crouch before Him in His agent, and humble himself to the man whom once he contemptuously ordered back to his burdens, with the abject prayer, "Forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and entreat Jehovah your God that He may take away from me this death only."
Now, every consecrated power may bear witness to the Lord: it is possible to do all to the glory of God. Not that every separate action will be ascribed to a preternatural source, but the sum total of the effect produced by a holy life will be sacred. He who said, "I have made thee a god unto Pharaoh," says of all believers, "I in them, and Thou, Father, in Me, that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Exo_6:1-4. Then the Lord] We can scarcely err in…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Exo_6:1-4. Then the Lord] We can scarcely err in saying that this verse should go with chap 5; and, as furnishing the immediate answer of Jehovah to the complaint of Moses, it brings the narrative to a resting place. Exo_6:2 begins a new section. 2 By my name Jehovah was I not known to them] We here come upon what appears to be a grave difficulty. It does not at once approve itself to our minds as consistent with fact to say that the fathers of the Hebrew people were not acquainted with the divine name Jehovah. It would seem from the sacred text itself that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not only knew this name, but were familiar with it, and even made special use of it on some occasions. For proofs of their acquaintance with it, see Gen_12:8; Gen_14:22; Gen_15:8 (Lord God = Adonai Jehovah); Gen_21:33; Gen_24:3; Gen_26:22; Gen_27:27; Gen_28:16;Gen_29:18, etc. As an example of special use of it, “Jehovah jireh” (Gen_22:14) at once comes to mind. Here is the difficulty. Where is the solution? Happily, it is near at hand. It may be found by simply giving to the statement before us its full value.
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(1) The word “name” should be taken in full biblical significance, as denoting what is revealed by the name—the attributes of Him to when the name belongs in so far as those attributes are symbolised by the name; in fact ‘the internal essence, as far as it is outwardly revealed and known as operative” (Fürst, under shêm). In other words, we must pass from the sign to the thing signified (cf. Psa_5:11; Pro_18:10; with Psa_48:10.) Apply this to the matter in hand, and we at once catch the idea that the meaning must be, not that the elder patriarchs did not know of such a name as Jehovah, but that God had not revealed himself to them in any considerable degree according to the import of that name. Now this naturally leads us to anticipate for the name “Jehovah” a very distinctive meaning; moreover, a meaning less fully verified to God’s people at one time than another. Let this be well observed.
(2) For the import of the name “Jehovah” we must refer to the “Critical Notes” on Exo_3:14. To bring from that place to this the crowning idea of “Fulfiller,” let us ask whether this, after what has been said above, does not fully meet the present difficulty. Is it not most obviously true to say that, broadly speaking, God made himself known to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, rather as PROMISER than as FULFILLER. We say “rather,” purposely qualifying our language for a reason to be stated presently. [Under “
(3)”] Certainly, one of the most marked features of the Divine dealings with Israel’s progenitors is the lavish abundance and astounding magnitude of the premises made to them,—made, but, for the time, most of them left UNFULFILLED. The land was promised (Exo_13:14-15; Exo_15:18-21) but the promise was not fulfilled; an innumerable seed was promised (Exo_12:2; Exo_13:16; Exo_17:6), but this promise was unfulfilled, and for a time the first steps towards its realisation were tardy; and the blessing of all the families of the earth in the seed of those wanderers was promised (Exo_12:3; Exo_22:18), and this again we need not say had not even now been accomplished. Most true, therefore, it is, that God had not made himself known, as characteristically “the Fulfiller,” to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: a truth now intimated with admirable fitness, when the land is just about to be given, and the seed has already swarmed from a family into a nation, and the bonds of that holy covenant are shortly to be entered into, by virtue of which the nations of the earth should at last be savingly blessed.
(3) We have only to add that the context here altogether confirms this solution of the difficulty. If we mistake not, it does so in a manner not a little remarkable. All must perceive how forcibly the main fact—that the God of Abraham was now about to FULFIL as he had never done before—tells in favour of this exposition. We now advance to an argument in its support drawn from the syntax of the entire passage, which has, we presume to think, been most strangely neglected. In other words, the fitting in of the difficult statement to its contexts has received almost no attention whatever. And yet how strongly it calls for notice. (a) Note the foregoing words. “I am Jehovah: AND I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob as God Almighty, but,” etc. “AND I appeared”: what means this “and”? The Hebrew punctists have not hesitated to throw all their weight on the conjunction, having marked it as the strong waw consecutive wâ-êrâ) and thus given us the hint to make the most of it, which, on the admitted principles of Hebrew Grammar, we are entitled to do. Availing ourselves of this hint, we may render thus: “I am Jehovah: AND indeed, I used to appear (imperfect, incoming tense, here probably reiterative [cf. Driver § 26]) unto Abraham, etc., as El shaddai, although, by my name (or, to the extent of my name) Jehovah, I did not make myself known to them.” In point of fact the “strong” conjunction (it is either “strong” or superfluous!) has the effect that, so far from setting the names EL SHADDAI and JEHOVAH in opposition to each other, it actually makes the former a stepping-stone to the latter,—makes the verification of that an anticipation of this. We may paraphrase the connection between them, something in this way: “I am Jehovah, ‘The Fulfiller;’ and, indeed, I did in a measure, make this manifest to your fathers, by again and again giving them proof of my power and of my goodness, thus fully bringing out and making good that other name of mine, El Shaddai, ‘God Almighty,’ (or, as some [Girdlestone: O. T. Syn.] render) ‘God All-Bountiful’: although as Jehovah, ‘The Fulfiller of my promises, I did not so familiarise them with my character, in that I suffered them to fall asleep with my great promises yet unfulfilled,” (b) Now observe the words that follow. “Moreover also (we gham, I set up my covenant with them,” etc.,—as if resuming the record of Jehovah anticipations,—as if still keeping an eye to fulfilment. So, Exo_6:4 :—“Moreover also I myself)—true to the memory of my covenant, and resolved to fulfil it—heard,” etc. “Wherefore say … I am Jehovah (the Fulfiller) … AND THEREFORE will have brought you (waw consecution again, though now, most fittingly, with the perfect [the complete] tense, in which promises and prophecies delight). And thus both preceding and succeeding context fully confirm the main statements of our solution; and, for our own part, we honestly think that not a shred of the original difficulty is left. “Name is to be taken as signifying revealed character. The name “Jehovah” is to be regarded as emphasised: it had not at all adequately been verified, so far. Yet, as All-mighty and All-bountiful, God has given many tokens that He would ultimately shine forth as Jehovah (Yahweh) “He will bring to pass,” “He will become all He has said.” That purpose, He now renounces. “I am Jehovah: the which ye shall know as your fathers never did.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Exo_6:1-8
GOD’S REPLY TO THE PRAYER OF A DISAPPOINTED WORKER
It is evident that the first few verses of this chapter belong to the last chapter, being the response to the prayer, which Moses had uttered in reference to the augmented burdens of Israel. Moses had said, “Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? Why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.” Then came the Divine reply. “You are mistaken, Moses. The failure of a first attempt—if failure you choose to call it—is no proof that a second experiment will not succeed. At all events, it is your duty to follow out what your God says: It is My glory to see that what I have promised and predicted will come to pass.” We are apt in all things to intrude on God’s province, thus losing force, instead of concentrating all our disposable energy within the province that God has assigned us. It is not ours to question for a moment that God will fulfil His promises; it is ours always and every where to fulfil the obligations that He has laid upon us. God says, that so far from Pharaoh succeeding, he will be glad to let these poor brickmakers and slaves go forth from his land. This was a most encouraging statement to Moses, and was given in sympathetic spirit.
I. This reply to the prayer of Moses intimated that God would bring the true result of his mission more thoroughly within the cognizance of his senses, “And the Lord said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh.”
1. The mission had hitherto been a great tax upon the faith of Moses. True, he had beheld the vision of the burning bush, but he had been unable to interpret its meaning. He had held communion with God, but no man hath seen God at any time. His was eminently a mission of faith. Reason would never have led him to it. Sense was utterly opposed to it. He had in youth seen the hosts of Pharaoh, he remembered their prowess, and would feel that it would be the extreme of folly to place himself in antagonism thereto, in so mad an enterprise. But God told him to go. Faith in God sustained him. Hence the mission commenced at its highest point, and was being prosecuted in truest motive. But the weak soul of man cannot work long in this high realm of service without tremor and wavering; he is liable to wander into the realm of sense. Such was the case with Moses. The first repulse made him cry out for the visible and the tangible. Hence the sphere of service was lowered. God does frequently adapt the work to the varying capacity of the workman. He sympathises with our weakness. He promises to let us see His dealings in reference to our mission. It is far better for man to work in the higher realm of service. The vision of faith is more ennobling. It is more refreshing. It gives a stronger power of endurance. It is better to trust the promise of God than to see prematurely God’s dealings with Pharaoh. The moral labour that taxes faith is beneficial to man eternally.
2. Now the mission is lowered to the sensuous vision of Moses. He was to see what God would do unto Pharaoh. Some men can work well in the region of the seen, but are impotent at moral service in the unseen realm. They ascend only to the mountain peaks of earth whither they can climb, they do not rise on the pinions of faith into the great world beyond, where the service is the most sublime. But sometimes the best of men lower their energies into the sphere of the sensuous, either through the imperfection of their energies, either in despair, or for rest from the constant tension of faith. God bears with their weakness. Let them return as soon as possible to the higher level of service.
II. This reply to the prayer of Moses vindicated his conduct against the recent insinuations and reproach of the Israelites. “For with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.” Pharaoh had said that the design of Moses and Aaron in making their demand of freedom was to encourage the Israelites in idleness The Israelites said that Moses and Aaron had deluded them, and had been the means of their augmented burdens. God now tells Moses that he had done his duty, and that its ultimate issue would be the liberty desired. Men often take a wrong view of our conduct. God always takes the right view. He is infallible. He knows when His servants are doing what He tells them. He sends them messages of approval for so doing. This vindication:
(1.) It would reassure Moses in his work. His prayer indicates that his soul was growing weary in the work of Israel’s freedom. He was yielding to the sad influence of doubt and uncertainty as to the issue of things. The outworking of his past effort was discouraging to him. Hence this reply to his prayer would reassure him in his work God generally sends such answers to our prayer as shall strengthen us for His service. In the attitude of devotion we always get visions of future toils.
(2.) It would clear his conscience from all condemnation. This reply to his prayer would give him to see that he had done the Israelites no wrong, and that their reproaches were ungrateful. This conviction would chase away his sorrow. It would a source of strength to him in his labour. A peaceful conscience is the truest joy of a Christian worker.
(3.) It would enable him to interpret his apparent failure. Moses, hearing of the burdens of Israel subsequent to his appeal to Pharaoh, regarded his work as a failure. He would now view it under a new light, under a brightening aspect. God only can give to men the true interpretation of their service, and this He does in answer to their prayers.
III. This reply to the prayer of Moses indicated how thoroughly the work announced by God should be accomplished. “For with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.”
1. This shows how wicked men are, under the providence of God, brought to do that which they had once resolutely refused. Pharaoh had told Moses and Aaron that he ignored their God, and that he would not give the Israelites their freedom. Yet the time will come when he will drive them forth into liberty. The sinner knoweth not the future, or he would act with greater wisdom in the present.
2. God makes these revelations in response to prayer that He may reanimate the dispirited worker. What a reviving effect this communication would have upon the soul of Moses; he would be immediately ready for new conflict with Pharaoh.
IV. In reply to the prayer of Moses, God vouchsafes a new and sublime revelation of His character. “And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by the name of Jehovah was I not known to them,” &c.
1. There was a sublime revelation of His name. Here the question occurs, was not this name known to Moses. There are two classes of commentators on this very text. Some say that the name of Jehovah was not known prior to the appearance of God in the burning bush. You answer that statement by referring to the vision that Abraham saw—the ram caught in the thicket—when he called the place Jehovah-jireh, “The Lord will provide.” Well, then, if Abraham used the very name Jehovah, and if the word Jehovah occurs several times besides in the course of the previous chapters, how can it be said that this name was not known to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob? Those who hold the opinion that it was not literally known to them, say that, as Moses did not write Genesis till some 2000 years after the facts recorded in it, he used the name Jehovah because it was known to the Jews at the time he wrote, though it was not known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the years in which they lived. But this would seem to be irreconcileable with some passages where the name Jehovah must have been used, because it was given with reference to special circumstances to which the other names of God would not seem to be applicable. And besides, it would seem on this supposition that Moses did not write strictly and literally what was true, but wrote the past with a borrowed light from the present, which would not be the duty of a faithful historian. The other opinion—and I think it is the just and only interpretation—is, that the name Jehovah was known to Abraham; but that its pregnant meaning, preciousness in its application, and comfort, was SO little known, that, in comparison, it was not known at all; that is, God had not manifested all His glory as Jehovah to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as he would do to Moses, and to the children of Israel in after generations. Pharaoh had made a new and more terrible revelation of himself to Moses and to the Israelites, and therefore the Divine Being opened up to them in comfort the inner glories of His Name. God’s name is more potent than all the hosts of Pharaoh. That name is revealed to human souls, the most beautifully, in prayer.
2. There was also a comforting reference to His covenant. “I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.” God thus reminds Moses of His covenant, which should prevent all fear on his part as to the ultimate success of his work.
3. There was also a pathetic reference to the sorrow of Israel. “And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage.” LESSONS:—
1. That God speaks to disappointed souls in prayer.
2. That the Divine communings with a disappointed soul have an uplifting tendency.
3. That God deals compassionately with the weakness of Christian workers.
A TRUE PATTERN OF GOSPEL REDEMPTION. Exo_6:4-8
I. That Gospel Redemption comes to the soul after a period of moral bondage and distress.
1. It finds the soul in a condition of moral bondage. “Whom the Egyptians keep in bondage.” The bondage is most severe. It is the bondage of sin. It has been long continued, through many years of our lives. It has been degrading. It has been fruitless to ourselves. We have all the time been working for another master, from whom we have received no good reward. The bondage seems almost hopeless to us. We have no token of moral liberty. Our thoughts, emotions, and energies are all in the slavery of sin. In this condition the Gospel of Christ finds the soul.
2. It finds the soul in a condition of anxious grief. “And I have also heard the groanings of the children of Israel.” The soul is awakened to a sense of the bondage and consequent degradation; and eagerly awaits the freedom of the Gospel. Its tears are those of repentance. Its cries are those for pardon. Its looks are toward the cross. In this condition the Gospel of redemption comes in all its mercy to the believing soul.
3. It is generally preceded by some Christian agency. Moses had been to the Israelites in their bondage, and had instrumentally awakened their desire for freedom. So the souls of men are often influenced by Christian agencies prior to their cry for the redemption of the cross. It is the aim of the Christian ministry to awaken within men the desire for moral freedom.
II. That Gospel Redemption comes to the soul by virtue of a Divine covenant and promise. “And I have remembered my promise,” Exo_6:5.
1. God through Christ has made a covenant of salvation with all who trust in the atonement. There has been the covenant of works. That is no longer possible to man. By the works of the law there shall no flesh living be justified. We are under the covenant of grace. By grace are ye saved through faith in Christ Jesus. By virtue of this covenant all contrite and believing souls may find rest in, and pardon from, God. There is no other covenant that can confer these blessings.
(1) This covenant is unique.
(2) This covenant is merciful.
(3) This covenant is of long standing. There is none other like it. It is the hope of man. It was made with the oldest saints, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
III. That Gospel Redemption brings the soul into holy and responsible relationship to God. “And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God,” Exo_6:7.
1. It constitutes the soul a Divine possession. It then belongs to God, its rightful owner. All its thoughts and affections are to be His. Thus the redemption of the Gospel brings back our moral manhood to God, brings us into sympathy with all that is divine and heavenly. It places the soul under the peculiar guardianship of the Infinite. God will then guard the soul. Aid it in its struggles. Open up its future. He will be its sun and shield. Oh! blessed redemption.
IV. That Gospel Redemption leads the faithful unto the inheritance of Canaan. “To give them the land of Canaan.” Thus what a change this redemption works, from slaves to freemen, from servitude to an inheritance. The redeemed are the inheritors of the universe. All things are yours.
REASONS FOR HUMAN REDEMPTION
I. The Burden of Man is a reason for human Redemption. “The burdens of the Egyptians,” Exo_6:6. Sin is a burden. It presses heavily on man. No human hand can remove it. Only Christ can. He says, “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” His burden is light. The pain occasioned by man’s burden of sin is a reason for its removal by Christ.
II. The Lordship of Christ is a reason for human Redemption. “I am the Lord.” Only the Supreme Ruler of the universe could achieve the redemption of man. He only could fulfil the violated law. He only could forgive the past neglect of it. He only could enable us to keep it in the future. Only the God of the soul can redeem it.
III. The Covenant of God is a reason for human Redemption. “I have remembered my covenant.” God desires the salvation of men. Promise—Type—Symbol. On Calvary the covenant was fully and eternally signed. The world was redeemed by price, only they are redeemed by power who believe in Christ.
DISCOURAGEMENT IN RELIGION PRODUCTIVE OF UNBELIEF IN THE PROMISES OF GOD
The school of experience is the only state of moral discipline in which a Christian can learn the nature of his warfare with the powers of darkness. When first convinced of spiritual captivity, he rises up to escape from it with an alacrity derived from much ignorance of the difficulties that await him in the road to heaven; not less than from a sense of peril by which he is surrounded. Engrossed by one idea, he overlooks the trials of his approaching conflict. The Israelites were anxious for deliverance. They were defenceless. It would be difficult to escape. The loss which God permitted threw them into despondency. There came an increase of burdens. They taunt Moses. He prays to God. A pattern of the Christian life.
I. The promise made by God to His afflicted children
1. He again declared His purpose of redeeming them from their captivity. Pharaoh upon his throne was mighty. Israel was feeble. God had pledged Himself for their deliverance. The ransom He was about to effect was to be attended with a manifestation of Almighty power the most unquestionable. They were not to go forth as fugitives, but as conquerors. Such an engagement has God, in spontaneous mercy, made with you. Are you seeking deliverance. It is promised.
2. The Most High declared that Israel should be adopted as His peculiar inheritance. Separated by customs, institutions, by temporal privileges, and spiritual distinctions, they were to become the family of Jehovah, and not to be reckoned amongst nations estranged from Him. A like declaration is made to all who wish to quit the state in which they are enslaved. “Ye are a chosen generation,” &c.
3. God also condescended to reiterate His promise of giving the possession of Canaan to Israel. Little would it have availed that the Israelites were to be redeemed from bondage, if the help had ended there. We should be ineffectually called from the death of sin, unless we are led on to eternal rest.
II. The unworthy manner in which these promises were received. It is comparatively easy to repose in God in the sunshine of peace. But when He comes in sorrow we cry out for fear. We refuse to walk any longer by faith. The word has declared, “That the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion.” Yet how often has God to remonstrate with us when He sees us sinking into doubt. Events appear to frustrate the promise. The burdens are increased. Satan taken advantage of this severe discipline. He endeavours to make us repine. If you would resist, rest not till ye have obtained practical acquaintance with God your Saviour, under the titles by which He revealed Himself to His ancient people.
(1) Knew him as El Shaddai, all sufficient to bless and save you with a present and everlasting salvation.
(2.) Knar Him at Jehovah, the glorious name by which He was revealed to Israel. He is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.—(Buddicom’s Christian Exodus).
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD UPON WICKED MEN
Exo_6:1.
I. That God sends severe judgments on men who reject His Commands. “Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh”:—
1. Notwithstanding his kingship. The judgments of God are not averted by the exalted social position or great power of kings. The proud monarch of Egypt cannot exempt himself from the retributions of heaven. There are none to deliver him
2. Notwithstanding his obstinacy. Moral obstinacy cannot shield men from the judgments of God. He can subdue the man of iron will. Suffering has a great effect upon obstinate souls.
3. Notwithstanding his despotism. The despot must yield to the sceptre of God. He may defy the vast nation Israel, but now he is in conflict with One who will defeat his armies.
II. That these judgments are often witnessed by Christian people. “Now shalt thou see.”
1. They are seen clearly. These judgments are seen in all their terrible force. In all their meaning. The dead king and his drowned army are washed upon the banks of the great waters. Retribution is clearly visible in their ruin.
2. They are seen retributively. The overthrow of Pharaoh and his host was no more accident. It was not the outcome of Divine caprice. It was not designed merely to vindicate the prophecy of Moses. It was punitive.
3. They are seen solemnly. These judgments are sad. They awaken thought and moral reflection. We dare not smile at the overthrow of the tyrant. His destiny makes us weep.
The good Lord sometimes promiseth sight of His great works, when His servants scarce believe Him.
In granting them sight God reproves the unbelief of His servants.
God’s strong hand is doubly engaged to work deliverance for His Church.
God chooseth to force deliverance from tyrants, to make His work conspicuous.
There is a great difference between looking at things from a distance, and seeing them drawing close upon us, or actually beginning.
Exo_6:2.
1. God speaking to man.
2. God speaking to man a condescension.
3. God speaking to man a judgment.
4. God speaking to man an instruction.
God usually joineth the promise of grace unto His people with that of force upon His enemies.
God’s promise of grace is plainly declared and revealed to His servants.
God useth to convey these promises of grace by a mediator to His people.
The highest promise of grace is that God will be Jehovah to His people.
Where God is Jehovah, all His promises are put into effect.
Exo_6:3. It is not merely in the actings of God that He would cause the heart to find rest, but in Himself—in His name and character.
God joins one encouragement to another to help the weak in faith.
God’s appearances are designed to work faith in creatures.
God’s appearances have been gradual in manner and measure till now.
Fullest discoveries of God require the greatest faith, and aggravate the sin of unbelief.
Knowledge of God’s name is needful to make souls trust it.
God’s name:—
1. Not a mere word.
2. Not an abstraction.
3. But a power.
4. A tower of strength.
5. A shield of protection.
6. The hope of the soul.
Exo_6:4. God’s covenant to His people:—
1. Stated.
2. Settled.
3. Kepr.
4. Happy.
5. Restful.
How much the Lord says of His covenant and His oath; and if you consider, there was something in this more suited to encourage hope and trust, than in any other ground for it He could have mentioned. When you are in distress, if you are told of a man who is kind and liberal, it gives you hope of relief. If you hear, moreover, that he has assisted many poor afflicted creatures exactly in your situation, your hopes are raised still more; and if, besides, you know he has promised help to all the needy who apply to him, that is better still; yet even that would not give you so much confidence as if you had it under his hand that he would help you, and you knew he had taken a solemn oath that he would give you all you stand in need of. He would then have bound himself, and his honour would be so engaged that he could not draw back. Now this is exactly what God had done to Israel; and by reminding Moses of it, He showed He did not mean one jot or tittle should pass from His covenant till all was fulfilled. And believers have the same security now. In His new covenant He has pledged Himself to those who have the faith of Abraham. In this covenant He has assured His people of pardon. (Anon.)
Exo_6:5. God hears the groans of His people.
God remembers the cruelty of the oppressor.
God remembers the covenant of His grace.
Exo_6:6. God’s appearance to His
Ministers is in order that He may make himself known to the Church.
Ministers must speak to the Church all that God reveals to them.
The main matter that must be re-revealed to the Church is that God is Jehovah.
God’s being Jehovah sets His Israel free from all Egyptian burdens.
The meaning of Jehovah is to rid the Church from bondage, temporal and eternal.
The redemption of Israel is Jehovah’s work.
Exo_6:7-8. Adoption of Israel to Himself is Jehovah’s work next to redemption.
Souls are adopted when they are God’s, and God is theirs. Jehovah does all this that Israel may acknowledge his saving power.
God’s people:—
1. Taken by God.
2. Knowing God.
3. Serving God.
4. Redeemed by God.
5. Happy in God.
6. Will live with God.
God’s oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is in order to successive generations.
Introduction into such signal privileges is a good step to the full blessing.
Jehovah’s donation of the inheritance promised surely followeth this introduction.
“I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God.” What follows is only one advantage among many, flowing from that blessed relation. The yoke of the oppressor shall be broken off your necks, for My people must not serve another master; freedom, protection, guidance, victory, wise laws, liberty to make known your requests to Me at all times, are among the many blessings of the people whom I take for My peculiar heritage; and then, “I will be to you a God.” This is better still; for in these words God gives Himself to them. His favours are precious, His gifts are valuable. He excels them all. Power, wisdom, patience, faithfulness, love infinite and everlasting, are all in Him; and those who have Him for their God, have all these for their portion. Well might David say, “My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.”
“I will be to you a God.”
1. Then my life should be devout.
2. Then my heart should be grateful.
3. Then my tongue shall be tuneful.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Divine Dependence! Exo_6:1. Moses and Aaron had made an alliance with God; what, then, had they to fear? If God be for us, who can be against us? If the Lord had not been on their side. He was on their side. He had entered into covenant with them. Three hundred years ago, says history, about a million of people in Holland were fighting for freedom from the tyranny of Rome. William, the Prince of Orange, a man who feared God, was the champion of the righteous cause. In the heat of the struggle, one of his generals sent an urgent despatch to know if he had succeeded in forming an alliance with any foreign power such as France or England. The brave deliverer’s reply thrilled the heart of the general as he read it: You ask me whether I have made a treaty with any great foreign power. I have. When I undertook to achieve the freedom of the oppressed Christians in these provinces, I made a close alliance with the King of Kings, and I doubt not that He will give us the victory.
“For who that leans on His right arm
Was ever yet forsaken?
What righteous cause can suffer harm
If He its part has taken.”
—Whittier.
Appointed Work! Exo_6:2. Moses would not have disliked the reaping, but to plough. Ploughing is hard work, and, to our notions, soiling work; and so we will not plough for Christ. It is hard work, says Power, to lift one foot in the heavy clay—to set it down often only to lift it up with greater difficulty still. Even that would perhaps not have deterred Moses; but the delay was trying. If we had a speedy return for our toil, perhaps we might undertake labours for Jehovah. If in the fields around us, as we turned up the furrow, we were sure of finding treasure—of the reaper overtaking the sower; if, as we sweated and toiled in ploughing, the sprouts became headed with grain, and our fevered brows were cooled with the breezes which undulated the waving corn, perhaps we would be ready to plough in hope. But such is not earthly ploughing, and such is not that of heaven. Moses had to plough and plough; and we have to labour and labour in hope, for
“Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve,
And hope without an object cannot live.”
—Coleridge.
Divine Decision! Exo_6:2. Moses forgot that the triumph of the wicked is always short—that the restrained flood is sure to pour forth with force proportionate to the length and strength of its restraint—and that time and tide are nowhere before the word of God. God had said. Each hindrance, therefore, on the part of Pharaoh—each refusal on his part to let Israel go—each oppression formed to intensify their bondage, and certify their serfdom to himself would only be treasuring up wrath. The waters were continually rising; and, just as with the great Canadian rivers, the more buttressess men expose to stem its current and icefloes, the more certainly are they bringing ruin upon their bridges and banks; so the hindrances of this despot were only culminating towards destruction. There fore
“Let not guilt presumptuous rear her crest,
Nor virtue droop despondent; soon these clouds
Scorning eclipse will brighten into day,
And in majestic splendour He will rise,
With healing and with terror on His wings.”
—Bally.
Groanings! Exo_6:4. How bitter are the tears of penitence! How agonising are the cries for pardon! It is with conscience then as if a messenger from God, as Dr. Todd represents, were to take us by the hand, and lead us up the steps of a great building, and, as we entered the porch, it should begin to grow dark. Suppose he should then open a door into a very large hall, which he called a “picture gallery.” As we enter, we find it dark as night; but as the angel touches a spring, light flashes in and fills the room. We now see that the walls are hung with pictures—so many and so large that they cover the walls. On these are painted all the sins that we have ever committed. What pictures of sins—open sins—secret sins—heart sins—lifelong sins! We cannot bear to look at them; they fill us with horror and anguish. That picture gallery becomes a judgment hall. Conviction of sin is there—contrition follows. And from contrition must spring confession and concision; for if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
“All powerful is the penitential sigh
Of true contrition; like the placid wreaths
Of incense, wafted from the righteous shrine
Where Abel ministered, to the blest seat
Of mercy, an accepted sacrifice.”
—Hayes.
Anxiety! Exo_6:5. A certain man, who had been listening to an awaking preacher during a season of revival, was heard to say with emphasis that he did not like the preachers of the present day, because “they make one feel so bad.” A representative of many sleeping in the chains of moral bondage, that human slave did not like to be reminded of his condition. Whilst the preacher dealt in beautiful things—dwelt upon the beauties of Nature and the bounties of Providence, all went well; but so soon as spiritual servitude was brought on the arena, the listener was made uneasy. Conscience, that witness in the soul which never dies, did its terrible duty—and the bondsman began to feel that he was verily guilty concerning his own fetters. He began to see that he was not the “freedman” which he had imagined himself in the spirit of self-delusion to be. That is the first dawn of conviction; but it is not full conviction. It may be stifled; and no groanings—no anxiety of soul—follow upon this first sensation. That emotion may be as the early dew—as the foam upon a billow—as the swift glance of a meteor—as the snow-flake on a river. It is the aim of the Christian ministry, says Exell, to awaken within men the desire for moral freedom, and that desire is the deepening of conviction—which anxiety ends in conversion, when a man enjoys the liberty of Christ. Therefore, the ambassador for Christ desires to “make men feel so bad”—to arouse them to the consciousness of their pitiable condition as bond-serfs of sin, in the hope of persuading them to embrace the Divine overtures of liberation from Satanic thraldom, and of leading them out of the Egyptian bondage into the Land of Freedom—the Gospel of free grace.
“The listening throng there feel its blessed effect,
And deep conviction glows in every breast.”
Covenant of Grace! Exo_6:5. It is of long-standing—going back not merely to David, or Moses, or Abraham—but to Adam. And thus the New Covenant is a development of the Old. The seed of Adam in Genesis became the giant Tree of Life in Revelation—while the bud of Sinai appears in the full-blown flower of Sion. In the Law, this covenant of grace is buried as the coal deposit which miners only reach by piercing the various intervening strata—or as the pearls of great price which divers only secure by plunging through fathoms of water. In the Gospel, this covenant of grace lies open—as a casket of gems whose lustre dazzles the natural mind—or as a parterre of flowers whose fragrance charms the sense. The covenant of the Old Dispensation is as real—because it is the same—as that of the New Dispensation; only it was pavilioned round with clouds—wrapped in many a folded leaf. In the Law of the patriarchs, priests and prophets, this unique, merciful, and ancient covenant of grace was like the secret writing of which Stainforth speaks, and which is invisible to the reader till held before the flame, when it gives forth the precious truth for which the soul was longing. The Divine fire brings out the conditions of the covenant of grace as penned by God in invisible but indelible and imperishable ink upon the pages of the moral and spiritual history of Adam, Enoch, Noah, and others.
“Across the ages they
Have reached us from afar,
Than the bright gold more golden they,
Purer than the purest star.”
—Bonar.
Heirs! Exo_6:6. A pious man was one day walking to the sanctuary with a New Testament in his hand, when a friend who met him said Good morning, and enquired what he was reading so earnestly. “I am reading my Father’s Will,” was the prompt response; “and I find that He has bequeathed me an hundredfold in this life, and in the world to come life everlasting.” The redeemed are the inheritors of the universe, 1 Corinthians 3, 12 :—
“Rise, my soul! and stretch thy wings,
Thy better portion trace;
Rise from transitory things
Towards heaven thy native place.”
—Seagrave.
Experience! Exo_6:6. The old saw declares that it teaches wisdom; while the French have a proverb that the ass does not stumble twice over the same stone. Sydney asserts that all is but lip-wisdom which wants experience. Caussin expresses himself that a hundred thousand tongues may discourse to a man about the sweetness of honey, but he never can have such knowledge of it as by taste. In spiritual things, experience is that sense of taste. Carlyle likens experience to a schoolmaster—an excellent schoolmaster, who charges dreadful wages. But suppose it is a costly education, only think of the future benefits. Solomon went through a peculiar experience of his own—an experience which many of us shudder at—a school in which we are reluctant to be trained: and this is the very man whom God chose as the schoolmaster to teach us the vanity of the world when it is made the portion of a soul. A smooth sea, so runs our English proverb, never made a skilful mariner. The young Christian sets sail under fair balmy breeze and clear sunny skies; but soon the clouds gather—the waves foam—the darkness deepens.
“And these vicissitudes tell best in youth;
For when they happen at a riper age,
People are apt to blame the fates forsooth,
And wonder Providence is not more sage.”
Why? Because one dram of experience is worth a whole hogshead of “dreams that wave before the half-shut eye”—for, as Dr. South says, practical sciences are not to be learned but in the way of action. It is experience that must give knowledge in the Christian profession as well as in all others. Alas! to most of us experience is like the stern-lights of a vessel which illumine only the track it has passed. God would have them to be the bow-lights—for adversity is the first path to truth.
Righteous Retribution! Exo_6:7. God’s mills grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small. And judgment comes at last, for forbearance has an end. Then these judgments often assume the form of retribution. It is recorded in ancient oriental history that an oppressor introduced a company of elephants into his army, whose appearance and power were expected to win the day. But the huge animals took fright when the opposing forces approached each other, turned tail, and, plunging amid their own ranks of infantry, spread dismay and defeat everywhere. Very similarly we are told that the old war chariots, whose wheels were armed with steel scythes to mow down the ranks of the enemy, instead of bringing destruction upon the opposite host, were not unfrequently dragged by the fiery, furious, frightened steeds into the lines of their friends, leaving a line of death behind them. Pharaoh’s oppressions are to recoil upon himself.
“In the corrupted currents of this world,
Offence’s gilded hand may shove by justice.”
Not so with God. His sun of justice may withdraw its beams from earthly notice for awhile; it may, as it were, sit concealed in a dark recess, pavilioned round with clouds. But it is coming. Dr. Thomas says that society is like the echoing hills—giving back to the speaker his words, groan for groan, song for song. With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. God’s forbearance, says Brooks, is no quittance. He hath leaden heels but iron hands; and the further He stretches His bow, or draws His arrow, the deeper will He wound. Even Anne of Austria, the Queen of France, could express as much to her implacable enemy, Cardinal Richelieu, when she exclaimed: My Lord Cardinal, God is a sure paymaster; He may not pay at the end of every week, month or year, but remember that He does pay in the end. In all time,
“All circumstances, all state, in every clime,
He holds aloft the same avenging sword;
And sitting on His boundless throne sublime,
The vials of His wrath, with justice stored,
Shall in His own good hour on all that’s ill be poured.”
—Percival.
God’s Name! Exo_6:3. Swinnock has it that travellers who are at the top of the Alps can see great showers of rain fall under them, but not one drop of it falls on them. They who trust in the name of Jehovah are in a high tower, and thereby safe from all troubles and showers. With such confidence in Him, their spiritual life is like the deep calm which prevails beneath, while above the waters are lashed into a foaming, boiling caldron. They which trust in the Lord shall be like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but which standeth fast for ever. A legend says that a rich and powerful king, troubled in heart in spite of all his possessions, went to a holy dervise and asked him for the secret of happiness. The dervise led him forth in front of a high rock, on the top of which an eagle had built her nest. Pointing to the lofty home of the king of birds, the aged recluse directed the monarch to imitate its wisdom by building on the rock of heavenly truth. And surely if a heathen could assure the terrified bird which flew from the hawk into his bosom for shelter that he would neither kill nor betray it, much less will God either slay or give up the soul that takes sanctuary in His name. The righteous runneth into this strong tower, and is safe.
“I all on earth forsake,
Its wisdom, fame, and power,
And Him my only portion make,
My shield and tower.”
Ministers! Exo_6:6. Ministers must speak to the Church all that God reveals to them. When they feel it their duty faithfully to speak pointedly to sinners, and to expose the hypocrisy of professors, let them not be condemned, even though their words condemn you. The pastor is God’s Moses to you, and it is at the peril of his soul that he must preach what his Master bids him. Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel—i.e., the good news of pardon and salvation. But the bad news of guilt and damnation precede—indeed are wrapped up in—this proclamation of glad tidings of great joy. Moses must arouse Israel to sense of their bondage, before the clarion of jubilee could ring its silver tones full and clear. A minister, Dr. Boyd says, was once asked not to preach so hard; for if he did, certain persons would leave the church. “Is not the preaching true?” responded the man of God. “It is.” “And does not God bless it?” “He does.” “Well, then, the devil has sent you to me, to get me to let down the tone of my preaching, so as to ease the minds of the ungodly.” We must speak all that God reveals to us. As there were bells as well as pomegranates on Aaron’s robes, so must the ambassador not only speak words of peace, but sound the bell of alarm. There is a proverb which says that more flies are caught with sugar than vinegar; but it belongs to the proverbial philosophy of the three authors—the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. As God gives, so must His servants—the vinegar of the law first, and then the sweetness of the gospel. The Almighty thus
“Makes known His sacred will, and shows His power;
By Him inspired, they speak with urgent tongue
Authoritative, whilst the illumined breast Heaves with unwonted strength.”
—Jenner.
Tuneful Tongues! Exo_6:7. Philip Henry says that thanksgiving is the rent which the saints owe to God. And if Christ dwell in our hearts—dwell, we say, not sojourn—we shall always be glad to pay that rent. Our praises will go up, writes Guthrie, as the incense continually. It was the law of some of the old monasteries to carry out this idea of “incense continually floating upwards to heaven,” by having constant change of choir. The chanting of praise was thus never interrupted; for as soon as one set of monks had done their service others supplied their place, so that, as Pilkington expresses it, both by day and night an endless hallelujah went up to God. It is a tradition of St. Francis that on one occasion he felt himself so penetrated with joy and consolation by the song of a nightingale that he began to sing, whereupon the bird of music stopped its strains. When the monk ceased, Philomela renewed her joyous chant: and thus they sang alternately until St. Francis was exhausted. So ought the saints to rejoice with them that do rejoice, when they themselves have apparently no cause to rejoice in themselves. Time may stop—the world may stay—the universe may cease its cycles; but Christians ought not to stop their songs—never! never!
“He that to praise and laud Thee doth refrain,
Doth not refrain unto himself alone,
But robs a thousand who would praise Thee fain,
And doth commit a world of sin in one.”
—Herbert.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Consider the meaning of our duty to God; the…
Exo 6:8
Consider the meaning of our duty to God; the great truth that we have such a duty; and how it comes about that we have it.
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I. Duty is something which is due from one to another; something which ought to be given, or ought to be done; not a thing which is given or done under compulsion, under the influence of fear, extorted by force, not even a free gift or offering; quite different from this; if a thing is a duty, it must be done because it is right to do it and wrong to omit it.
II. The words of the text are, as it were, the sign manual whereby Almighty God, in His dealings with His ancient people the children of Israel, claimed from them the performance of that duty which they owed to Him. The words which gave validity to an Israelitish law merely rehearsed the fact that He who gave the law was Jehovah; and nothing more was added, because nothing more remained to be said.
III. Notice the principles upon which our duty to God depends. (1) There is a relationship, a close vital connection between God and man, which does not exist between God and any other of His creatures; man is in a very high sense "the Son of God," so that it is inconceivable that the true aims and purposes of God and man can be distinct. Man being made in God’s image, ought to do God’s will. (2) Our duty to God depends also on the ground of election. God deals with us now as with His Church in former days; it is still a Church of election. We, to whom God sends His commands, are still rightly described as redeemed out of the house of our bondage; and if the redemption of Israel out of Egypt be nothing better than the faintest type and shadow of the redemption of mankind out of the power of the devil, how much greater is the appeal which is made to us on the ground of that deliverance which Jesus Christ has wrought out.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 4th series, p. 1.
References: Exo 6:8.—M. G. Pearse, Thoughts on Holiness, p. 231. Exo 6:9.—W. Arnot, Roots and Fruits of the Christian Life, p. 327; Parker, vol. ii., p. 310; R. D. B. Rawnsley, Sermons for the Christian Year, p. 494. Exo 6:27.—Parker, vol. ii., p. 311. Exo 7:1-14.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., pp. 67, 69.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Renewal of the Promise. Genealogies of Reuben, Simeon,…
The Renewal of the Promise. Genealogies of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi
1. The strong hand is the hand of Jehovah, not of Pharaoh. So RV renders, 'by a strong hand,' i.e. under the compelling force of Jehovah's judgments: see on Exo_3:19.
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3. The name of God Almighty] Heb. El Shaddai, which occurs first in the revelation made to Abraham (Gen_17:1 cp. also Gen_28:3; Gen_48:3). It is here said that God was not known in the patriarchal times by the name Jehovah. This constitutes a difficulty, as the name has been already used in passages earlier than this, e.g. in Gen_2:4; Genesis 3; Genesis 4; Gen_11:1-9, etc. Two explanations have been given: (1) The use of the name Jehovah in these earlier passages may be due, not to the speakers themselves, but to the writer of those parts of the book of Genesis in which it is found, to whom it was familiar, and who used it by anticipation. (2) While the name Jehovah may have been known from earliest times, its full spiritual significance may not have been revealed or apprehended till the time of Moses. Traces of the antiquity of the name Jehovah may be found in its employment by Abraham as part of a proper name: see Gen_22:14. The name of Moses' mother, Jochebed (Exo_6:20), also contains the name Jehovah as its first element.
5. See on Exo_2:24.
6. Redeem] deliver from oppression.
7. Seeon Exo_19:5, Exo_19:6.
12. Uncircumcisedlips] Circumcision is the sign of consecration, so that 'uncircumcision' is used metaphorically of what is unclean or inadequate to the service of God: see on Lev_19:23.
14-27. The object of this section is to indicate the genealogy of the deliverers, Moses and Aaron. The family of Levi is therefore given in detail. Those of Reuben and Simeon are prefixed merely to show the position of the family of Levi among the sons of Jacob, and are therefore summarily described.
14. Hanoch] the Hebrew form of Enoch.
20. Jochebed] 'Jehovah is glory': see on v.
3. Observe that marriage with a father's sister was not forbidden before the giving of the Law: see Lev_18:12. It is not improbable that the genealogy of Amram has been shortened here by the omission of certain names. Joshua, who was a younger contemporary of Moses, was of the tenth generation from Joseph: see 1Ch_7:20-27. The designation 'daughter of Levi 'applied to Jochebed in Exo_2:1 may, therefore, be equivalent to 'descendant of Levi.' But see Num_26:59, where Miriam's name is also inserted: see on Exo_2:1.
26. Their armies] Israel left Egypt as an organised host: see on Exo_3:16, and see Exo_12:17, Exo_12:51; Exo_13:18.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v6 Heb. "goel," Redemp. (Kinsman type). See note, (See Scofield…
redeem
Heb. "goel," Redemp. (Kinsman type). See note, (See Scofield "Isa 59:20")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 CHAPTER 6:1-27 Jehovah’s Answers and the Genealogy
CHAPTER 6:1-27 Jehovah’s Answers and the Genealogy
1. Jehovah answers Moses (Exo 6:1-13)
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2. The Genealogy (Exo 6:14-27)
Moses’ “wherefore” and “why,” his outburst of impatience, is graciously met by Jehovah. In His answer He speaks more fully of Himself as Jehovah, and what He will do in behalf of His afflicted and oppressed people. “I am Jehovah,” is His solemn declaration. Note the continued utterances of what He is and what He will do. “I appeared unto Abraham; I have heard; I have remembered; I will bring you out; I will rid you out of their bondage; I will redeem you; I will take you to be for Me a people; I will be to you a God; I will bring you into the land; I will give it to you for a heritage; I am Jehovah.” In Ezekiel, chapter 36, the reader will find Jehovah’s “I will” concerning the future restoration of His people Israel .
No condition is mentioned; for their salvation as well as ours, is “not of works” but of grace alone. The source of all is His love (Deu 7:7-8). Salvation is Jehovah’s work and not ours. Thus while the patriarchs knew the name of God as Jehovah, the full revelation of Jehovah, working in the gracious performance of His promises, they knew not. Exo 6:3 means that they did not understand the name Jehovah, though they knew that name. Then follows the record of “the heads of their fathers’ houses.” He knows them by name. He comes down where the slaves are, and calls them by name, thus identifying Himself with them. And then He knew, as He does now, every groan, every burden, every spot upon which the whip of the cruel taskmaster had fallen. This is the precious lesson of this register of names. No other genealogy is found in Exodus. What a great redeemer is Jehovah, our Lord Jesus Christ! All praise and glory be to His holy Name.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 The Lord Sends a Comforting Message
The Lord Sends a Comforting Message
v. 1. Then the Lord said unto Moses, in answer to his cry of anxiety, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. That was God’s answer as to the eventual method which would be adopted by Pharaoh in dealing with the children of Israel. He would not only dismiss Israel out of his country, but he would do so with impatience, he would expel them.
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v. 2. And God spake unto Moses in a solemn declaration, and said unto him, I am the Lord;
v. 3. and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by My name Jehovah was I not known to them. To the patriarchs the Lord had not revealed Himself in His specific capacity as Jehovah, although the name was not unknown to them. Now He wanted to give actual evidence, definite proof, of Himself in fulfilling His promises, in carrying out the conditions of the Messianic covenant, at least in its typical form.
v. 4. And I have also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. This covenant had been made with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, as their history abundantly shows, while they were still strangers in the Land of Promise. But the time of four generations, of which the Lord had spoken to Abraham, Gen 15:16, was now drawing to a close, and so His words must now be fulfilled.
v. 5. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant. That was the second factor which decided the Lord, the lamenting, the wailing, of the children of Israel under the burden of their bondage in Egypt.
v. 6. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord; He wanted to prove Himself as Jehovah. And I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm and with great judgments. The expression "arm stretched out" is even stronger than "arm of strength" of verse 1, since it is the aim of the Lord to reassure the people beyond the shadow of a doubt.
v. 7. And I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am the Lord, your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. This formal acceptance of the children of Israel as the people of the covenant took place at Mount Sinai, Exo 19:5-6. The Lord here repeats the definite statement that He would lead Israel out from under, entirely away from, the oppressive burdens of the Egyptians.
v. 8. And I will bring you in unto the land concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage, for a permanent possession; I am the Lord. This, then, was the Lord’s threefold promise: to deliver His people from the bondage of Egypt; formally to adopt them as His people; to bring them into Canaan, their future possession. Thus the Lord comforts His children in the midst of their afflictions with the promise of the everlasting deliverance, whereby His covenant, His Word, remains alive in their hearts.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 6, 8 my strong hand
my strong hand
The word "hand" here represents God's actions or works. AT: "the power I show in my works" (See: Metonymy)
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translationWords
Yahweh
Moses
Pharaoh
hand
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 7 6:1-13 God renewed his promises. The offer of rescue…
6:1-13 God renewed his promises. The offer of rescue brought the true question to the fore, the question articulated by Pharaoh: Who is the Lord (5:2)? As much as the Israelites needed rescue from bondage, their greater need was to know the Lord. The climax of God’s renewed promises was “you will know that I am the Lord your God” (6:7).
6:1 Now you will see: Far from being daunted by the questions being raised about his integrity, his ability, and his very character, God looked forward to the clash of worldviews that lay ahead. Pharaoh, thinking himself divine, would just be a pawn in the hand of the one true God.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.